Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / ib / Paper 2 / 19D / a / Solution

A Givens rotation is the identity outside rows and columns $p,q$, with the $2\times 2$ blockThe block's transpose times itself is the identity, so the whole matrix satisfies $\boxed{{\Omega }^T\Omega =I}$ and is an orthogonal matrix. In particular it preserves the Euclidean norm. To annihilate the lower entry of a column pair $(a,b{)}^T$, take $c=a/r$, $s=b/r$, $r=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}$; the rotated pair is $(r,0{)}^T$. If both entries are zero, take the identity rotation.