Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2002 / Paper 2 / 8 / a / Solution

An orthogonal matrix satisfies $A^{-1}=A^T$, while a symmetric matrix satisfies $A^T=A$. Combining them gives $\boxed{A^{-1}=A}$. For the product with the antisymmetric matrix $B$, the rule for the transpose of a matrix product givesThus $AB$ is an antisymmetric matrix exactly when $AB=BA$. The hypotheses do not force this commutativity. For a counterexample, takeHere $A$ is a symmetric matrix and an orthogonal matrix, and $B$ is an antisymmetric matrix and an orthogonal matrix, but $AB$ is a nonzero symmetric matrix, so it is not an antisymmetric matrix. On the other hand, the product of two orthogonal matrices is always an orthogonal matrix:Therefore the answers are $\boxed{\text{(i) no; (ii) yes.}}$