Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2021 / Paper 1 / 18 / e / Solution

For any real square matrix $N$, the symmetric and antisymmetric parts of a matrix give $N=(N+N^T)/2+(N-N^T)/2$, whose summands are respectively a symmetric matrix and an antisymmetric matrix. Here it givesTransposing the first summand leaves it unchanged; transposing the second changes its sign. Entrywise addition recovers the original matrix. The decomposition is unique because a matrix that is both symmetric and antisymmetric must be zero.