Lecture 7: Linear Transformationa and their matrices

Examples of linear transformations.

(1) Rotation by π/2 in R2 followed by reflection about the x-axis. Remember
that rotation by π/2 is given by
   
x −y
R =
y x
and reflection about the x-axis is accomplished by the linear transformation
   
x x
S =
y −y
One followed by the other is then the linear transformation
          
x x x −y −y
T = (S ◦ R) =S R =S =
y y y x −x
(2) Rotation in R2 by an angle α counterclockwise
   
x x cos α − y sin α
T =
y y cos α + x sin α
(3) Integration. V = Pn , W = Pn+1 . Define
T : V −→ W
Z
T (p) = p(x) dx.

This is a linear transformation because of

Z Z Z
(p(x) + q(x))dx = p(x) dx + q(x) dx
Z Z
αp(x) dx = α p(x) dx if α ∈ R.

(4) Shifting the graph of a function to the right. Let V = W = Pn and define
T : V −→ W
by
(T p)(x) = p(x − 1)
For example if p(x) = x +3 then T p is the polynomial (T p)(x) = (x−1)2 +3.
2

This is a linear transformation:

(T (p + q))(x) = (p + q)(x − 1)
= p(x − 1) + q(x − 1)
= (T p)(x) + (T q)(x)
and
(T (αp))(x) = (αp)(x − 1) = αp(x − 1) = α(T p)(x).
Convince yourself that moving a graph up or down (T p)(x) = p(x) + 1 is
not a linear transformation.
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(5) Taking the transpose of a matrix. Let V = W = M2×2 and define a

transformation T : M2×2 −→ M2×2 by T (A) = AT , i.e.
   
a b a c
T =
c d b d
This is a linear transformation because of
   ′   
a b a b′ a + a′ b + b ′
T + = T
c d c′ d′ c + c′ d + d′
 
a + a′ c + c′
=
b + b′ d + d′
   ′ 
a c a c′
= +
b d b′ d′
   ′ 
a b a b′
= T +T
c d c′ d′
and
    
a b αaαb
T α = T
c d αcαd
 
αa αc
=
αb αd
 
a c
= α
b d
 
a b
= αT
c d

Finding the matrix of a Linear Transformation between vector spaces.

We begin the discussion by considering a linear transformation
  T : Rn → Rm ,
x1
where Rn consists as usual of all column vectors x =  ...  with real entries. In
 

xn
the textbook they sometimes write (x1 , . . . , xn )T (to save space). We assume that
ej are the standard basis vectors (the only nonzero entry being ’1’ in row #j) so
that
x = x1 e1 + · · · xn en .
We write
     
a11 a12 a1n
 a21   a22   a2n 
T (e1 ) = a1 =  ..  , T (e2 ) = a2 =  ..  , . . . , T (en ) = an =  .. ,
     
 .   .   . 
am1 am2 amn
and we organize all the numbers aij into a matrix
 
a11 a12 · · · a1n
 a21 a22 · · · a2n 
A= . .. ..  = [a1 , . . . , an ].
 
 .. . ··· . 
am1 am2 · · · amn
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Then, since T is linear, we calculate

T (x) = T (x1 e1 + · · · xn en )
= x1 T (e1 ) + · · · xn T (en )
= x1 a1 + · · · xn an
= A·x
recalling the definition of matrix-vector multiplication. Summarizing,
In order to find the matrix A of a linear transformation T : Rn → Rm with respect
to the standard bases on Rn and Rm we compute the vectors
     
a11 a12 a1n
 a21   a22   a2n 
T (e1 ) =  .  , T (e2 ) =  .  , . . . , T (en ) =  .  ,
     
 ..   ..   .. 
am1 am2 amn
and collect them together in a matrix
 
a11 a12 ··· a1n
 a21 a22 ··· a2n 
A= . .. .. .
 
 .. . ··· . 
am1 am2 ··· amn
We will illustrate this on some of the previous examples.
Example (1): Rotation by π/2 in R2 followed by reflection about the x-axis. We get
       
1 0 0 −1
T = ,T =
0 −1 1 0
and the matrix of the transformation is given by
 
0 −1
−1 0
Example (2): Rotation in R2 by an angle α counterclockwise. We get
       
1 cos α 0 − sin α
T = ,T =
0 sin α 1 cos α
and the matrix of the transformation is given by
 
cos α − sin α
sin α cos α
For further examples we need to discuss how to find the matrix of a linear trans-
formation between general vector spaces.

Assume that V, W are vector spaces with bases e1 , . . . , en and f1 , . . . , fm respec-

tively. Moreover, let
T : V −→ W
be a linear transformation. The bottomline is that
after choosing these bases, the linear transformation T can be described by an
(m × n)-matrix.
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Each vector T (ek ), 1 ≤ k ≤ n, can be written as a linear combination of the

basis vectors f1 , . . . , fm , i.e. there are scalars ajk with 1 ≤ j ≤ m, 1 ≤ k ≤ n such
that
m
X
(1) T (ek ) = ajk fj
j=1

(the double indices ajk are just a convenient way to keep track of the coefficients).
Let now v ∈ V be a vector in V . We can represent it in terms of the basis vectors
as follows:
v = v1 e1 + · · · + vn en .
We then compute
n
!
X
T (v) = T vk ek
k=1
n
X
= T (vk ek )
k=1
Xn
= vk T (ek )
k=1
Xn Xm
= ajk vk fj
k=1 j=1
Xm
= (aj1 v1 + · · · + ajn vn )fj
j=1

Using the bases of V and W we will write vectors in V and W as column vectors
as follows: We will associate a column vector
 
v1
 ..  n
 . ∈R
vn
with a vector v = v1 e1 + · · · + vn en in V
and similarly we will associate a column vector
 
w1
 ..  m
 . ∈R
wm
with a vector w = w1 f1 + · · · + wm fm ∈ W . We can then write
      
v1 a11 v1 + · · · + a1n vn a11 · · · a1n v1
T  ...  =  ..   .. ..   .. 
= .
  
. .  . 
vn am1 v1 + · · · + amn vn am1 · · · amn vn
Summarizing, we need to compute T (ek ), relate them to the basis vectors fk , and
formula (1) yields the matrix of T .
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Here are some examples:

Reflection about the x-axis in R2
We choose V = W = R2 but we choose the following basis instead of the standard
basis    
1 1
h1 = , h2 =
0 1
In the previous notation we have n = m = 2 and ej = fj = hj . Let T : R2 → R2
be the linear transformation which is reflection about the x-axis, i.e.
      
x1 x1 1 0 x1
T = =
x2 −x2 0 −1 x2
The above matrix is the matrix of T with respect to the standard basis. We want
to compute the matrix of T with respect to the basis h1 , h2 . We calculate
   
1 1
T (h1 ) = T = = h1
0 0
and 
      
1 1 −1 2
T (h2 ) = T = = + = −h2 + 2h1
1 −1 −1 0
Comparing with formula (1) the matrix of T with respect to the basis h1 , h2 is
given by  
1 2
.
0 −1
Integration of polynomials
Let V = P2 , W = P3 . Define
T : V Z−→ W
T (p) = p(x) dx.
We pick the following bases for P2 and P3 :
{e1 , e2 , e3 } = {1, x, x2 } ⊂ P2
and
{f1 , f2 , f3 , f4 } = {1, x, x2 , x3 } ⊂ P3 .
We get by integrating
1 2 1 1 1
x = f3 , T (e3 ) = x3 = f4
T (e1 ) = x = f2 , T (e2 ) =
2 2 3 3
Identifying all vectors with column vectors this amounts to
     
  0   0   0
1  1  0  0  0  0 
T 0 =  0 ,T
  1 =
 1/2  , T
  0 =
 0


0 0 1
0 0 1/3
and the matrix of T with respect to the bases {e1 , e2 , e3 } and {f1 , f2 , f3 , f4 } is given
by  
0 0 0
 1 0 0 
 0 1/2 0  .
 

0 0 1/3
Note that different choices of bases lead to a different matrix.