2x y + 2z = 3
1 Find all solutions of the linear system x + y z =6
x + 2y 4z = 16
Solution:
The solution is x = 2, y = 1, z = 3.
2 A secret fraction lab near Boston has discov-
ered three nonzero fractions x, y, z such that
their sum adds up to 1. One of the fractions is
twice as big the other. You also know that one
of the fractions is three times as big as an other.
The lab has found two solutions but knows that
there are four. Can you find them all?
Solution:
We have the following possibilities
x + y + z = 1, x = 2y, x = 3z
x + y + z = 1, x = 2y, y = 3z
x + y + z = 1, x = 2y, z = 3y
The solutions are 1/3, 1/6/1/2 or 3/5, 1/10, 3/10 or
6/11, 3/11, 2/11 or x = 2/9, y = 1/9, z = 2/3.
3 A 10 km trip from the Swiss waterfall Rhein-
fall to the village Rheinau takes 30 minutes.
The return trip takes an hour. How fast is the
speed v (in km/h) of the boat traveling relative
to the water, and how fast is the speed s (in
km/h) of the river?
Solution:
Let v be the speed of the boat relative to the water, and s be
the speed of the stream; then the speed of the boat relative to
the land is v + s downstream and v s upstream. Using the
fact that (distance) = (speed)(time), we obtain the system
1
10 = (v + s) 2 downstream
10 = (v s) upstream
Scaling gives us
1 0 15
,
1 1 20
Solution:
The thermal equilibrium condition requires that
T2 + 400 + 0 + 0
T1 = ,
4
T1 + T3 + 400 + 0
T2 = ,
4
T2 + 800 + 0 + 0
T3 = .
4
4T1 + T2 = 400
We can rewrite this system as T1 4T2 + T3 = 400 .
T2 4T3 = 800
0 0 1 288
1 1 0 286
values in the left column to obtain 0 2 0 864 . From
0 0 1 288
this, we can scale the middle row and add it to the top row,
1 0 0 146
getting 0 1 0 432 . This tells us that there are 146 vertices,
0 0 1 288
Main definitions
A linear equation for finitely many variables
x1, x2, . . . , xn is an equation of the form