Linear mappings: Linear mappings
Finding the matrix that determines a linear mapping
We already know that any linear mapping \(L\) from \(\mathbb{R}^n\) into \(\mathbb{R}^m\) can be described as a matrix mapping \(L_A\) for an appropriate \(m\times n\) matrix. Until now we could easily write down the matrix \(A\) from the definition of the mapping \(L\) in terms of coordinates. But what to do when you are given only images of some vectors?
The example below illustrates a suitable method for finding the matrix of a linear mapping.
A linear mapping \(L_A :\mathbb{R}^3\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^3\) is given by \[
A \cv{-1\\0\\1}=\cv{-4\\2\\4}, \quad A \cv{1\\1\\0}=\cv{1\\-1\\-1},\quad A \cv{0\\1\\2}=\cv{-5\\4\\4}\tiny.\] We put this information in three columns with on top the column vector and at the bottom its image. For the sake of clarity, we place a horizontal line separating the top and bottom part: \[
\left(\begin{array}{rrl}
-1 & 1 & \phantom{-}0\\
0 & 1 & \phantom{-}1\\
1 & 0 & \phantom{-}2 \phantom{-}\\ \hline
-4 & 1 & -5\\
2& -1& \phantom{-}4\\
4 & -1 & \phantom{-}4\end{array}\right)\] We then transpose this matrix: \[
\left(\,\begin{array}{rrr}
-1 & 0 & 1\\
1 & 1 & 0\\
0 & 1 & 2
\end{array}\,\left|\,\begin{array}{rrr}
-4 & 2 & 4\\
1 & -1 & -1 \\
-5 & 4 & 4
\end{array}\,\right.\right)\] We reduce this matrix to it reduced row echelon form and get \[
\left(\,\begin{array}{rrr}
1 & 0 & 0\\
0 & 1 & 0\\
0 & 0 & 1
\end{array}\,\left|\,\begin{array}{rrr}
2 & 1 & -3\\
-1 & -2 & 2 \\
-2 & 3 & 1
\end{array}\,\right.\right)
\] We transpose this matrix and get \[
\left(\begin{array}{rrl}
1 & 0 & \phantom{-}0\\
0 & 1 & \phantom{-}0\\
0 & 0 & \phantom{-}1\phantom{-}\\ \hline
2 & -1 & -2\\
1 & -2 & \phantom{-}3\\
-3 & \phantom{-}2 & \phantom{-}1\end{array}\right)\] By this construction appear in the columns on top the three unit vectors and at the bottom their image under \(L_A\). So, the matrix \(A\) is \[
A=\left(\,\begin{array}{rrr}
2 & -1 & -2\\
1 & -2 & 3\\
-3 & 2 & 1
\end{array}\,\right)
\] We can easily check whether there has been no calculation error by using this matrix to compute the images of \(\cv{-1\\0\\1}, \cv{1\\1\\0}\) and \(\cv{0\\1\\2}\) and to verify the results of this.
Of course you avoid the matrix transpositions by working with row vectors instead of column vectors in \(\mathbb{R}^3\).