16. Echelon examples

16. Echelon examples

Example 1

Take the system x+2y+z=5,

-x+y+2z=1,
x-z=1.
The augmented matrix is (121|5-112|110-1|1).
To clear the first column, we do R2R2+R1 and R3R3-R1 , which gives: (121|5033|60-2-2|-4).
Now we do R213R2 and R3-12R3 to get: (121|5011|2011|2).
Finally, clear column 2 with R3R3-R2 and R1R1-2R2 , giving: (10-1|1011|2000|0).
This is now in reduced echelon form. It corresponds to the equations x-z=1,
y+z=2,
0=0.
The third equation is trivially satisfied: it is just a check that our equation really has a solution. The other two can be used to express the dependent variables x,y in terms of the free variable z . Note that x,y are chosen as dependent variables because they are the variables whose coefficients are leading entries.

Example 2

Take the system 2x+2y=2,

x+y+z=8,
x+y-z=-5.
The augmented matrix is (220|2111|811-1|-5).
We do R112R1 , yielding: (110|1111|811-1|-5).
Now we clear column 1 with R2R2-R1 and R3R3-R1 , which gives: (110|1001|700-1|-6).
Finally, R3R3+R2 yields: (110|1001|7000|1).
The left-hand block is now in reduced echelon form.

Translating this back into equations gives x+y=1,z=7,0=1.

This means there is no solution, because 01 .

Example 3

Take the very similar system 2x+2y=2,

x+y+z=8,
x+y-z=b.
Here, b is a parameter; we'll perform the same analysis and figure out what value b needs to take in order for the system to have a solution. The augmented matrix is (220|2111|811-1|b).
The same sequence of row operations yield (110|1001|7000|b+6).
We see this only has a solution if b=-6 . In this case, the solution is x=1-y , z=7 (y is free).

The moral of this is: for an augmented matrix (M|v) with M in reduced echelon form,

  • any row of zeros in M gives a constraint on the vector v which has to be satisfied if a solution is to exist,

  • any other row gives you a way of expressing a single dependent variable in terms of free variables.