Tuesday, 19 November 2019

Linear Algebra - Determining if two matrices are similar



Are the matrices A=[123112035] and B=[114115116] similar?



I know that similar matrices have the same determinant, the same rank, and the same characteristic polynomial (and therefore, the same eigenvalues).



What I have tried:



det(A)=30




det(B)=2



rank(A)=3



rank(B)=3



How do I show the characteristic polynomial for A and B?



Also since det(A)det(B), we already know that matrices A and B are not similar so we don't need to prove that using B=P1AP, right?


Answer




Similar matrices have the same eigenvalues, determinants are product of eigenvalues so similar matrices have same determinants. Thus, different determinants not similar, so you don't need to do any more work to prove they aren't similar.



You can find the characteristic polynomial from the definition -- the characteristic polynomial of A is det(AλI) [ or depending on who you ask, sometimes det(λIA); this is negative of the other definition if A has an odd number of rows] where I is the identity matrix of the same size as A, and the variable is λ.


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