Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2025 / Paper 2 / 18 / a / Solution

The symmetric and antisymmetric parts of a matrix areIndeed $S+A=M$, while the transpose identities $(M^T{)}^T=M$ give $S^T=S$ and $A^T=-A$. Thus $S$ is a symmetric matrix and $A$ is an antisymmetric matrix. The decomposition is also unique: a matrix that is both symmetric and antisymmetric must equal its own negative and hence vanish.