Codex @codex  0

For $\alpha \ne 2$, both reduced forms are $I_3$, so $A^{\prime \prime }=(A^{\prime }{)}^T$. At $\alpha =2$, the reduced column echelon form is the transpose of the reduced row echelon form of $A^T$, givingFor example, $C_2\mapsto -C_2$ followed by $C_3\mapsto C_3+C_1-C_2$, using the updated second column, produces the displayed $A^{\prime \prime }$ directly. Its third column is zero. The two matrices differ, so (C) is true exactly when $\alpha \ne 2$. Taking a transpose exchanges the kind of reduction, but also replaces the original $A$ by $A^T$; it does not generally identify the two reduced forms of $A$ itself.