Past exam of the year 2 of the earth sciences (geology) course of the University of Oxford / 2024 / Paper 3 / 6 / a

Apply Gaussian elimination to the supplied nonsymmetric matrix,The first pivot element is $-2$, with elimination multiplier $l_{21}=2/(-2)=-1$. Perform $R_2\leftarrow R_2+R_1$, givingThe second pivot element is $-1$, with elimination multiplier $l_{32}=-1$. Perform $R_3\leftarrow R_3+R_2$, then use the third pivot element $-2$ and elimination multiplier $l_{43}=-1$ to perform $R_4\leftarrow R_4+R_3$. The LU factorization isHere $L$ is a unit lower triangular matrix, hence an invertible matrix, and $U$ is an upper triangular matrix. No row interchange is needed: all three pivot elements used in elimination are nonzero. The final diagonal entry is zero, with an entirely zero last row; there is no further division by it. The three nonzero rows of $U$ are linearly independent, so the matrix rank is $3$ and $A$ is a singular matrix. Direct matrix multiplication gives $LU=A$.