Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2022 / Paper 2 / 7 / d / Solution

The pinned third bar has zero displacement, so remove its row and column from the stiffness matrix while retaining the springs that connect the moving bars to it. The remaining unit-mass system hasIts eigenvectors $(1,1{)}^T$ and $(1,-1{)}^T$ have eigenvalues $2k$ and $4k$. HenceFor $k=1$ these are $\sqrt{2}$ and $2$. The fixed value $X_3=0$ changes the static offsets and reaction force but not this linearized matrix.