Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2011 / ia / Paper 1 / 6A / c / Solution

Expanding the formula from part (a) in components gives $y_i=x_i+(\alpha -1)n_i{n}_j{x}_j$, with repeated indices summed. Hence the matrix of a linear map and its inverse, when $\alpha \ne 0$, have entriesHere ${\delta }_{ij}$ is the Kronecker delta. To check the matrix inverse, write $P=n{n}^T$; $P^2=P$ because $|n|=1$. Thus $A=(I-P)+\alpha P$ and $B=(I-P)+{\alpha }^{-1}P$, whose product is the identity matrix.