Link to this document's Jupyter Notebook

In order to successfully complete this assignment you must do the required reading, watch the provided videos and complete all instructions. The embedded survey form must be entirely filled out and submitted on or before 11:59pm on on the day before class. Students must come to class the next day prepared to discuss the material covered in this assignment.


Readings for this topic (Recommended in bold)

Pre-Class Assignment: Decompositions

Goals for today's pre-class assignment

  1. Matrix Decomposition
  2. Decompositions
  3. Assignment wrap-up

1. Matrix Decomposition

DO THIS: Watch the following video and answer the questions below.

Consider the following code to calculate the $A = Q\Lambda Q^{-1}$ eivendecomposition.

DO THIS: Using code, verify that A2 is the same as $A$.

DO THIS: Turn the above code into a function called eigendecomp which takes in a matrix A and returns Q and L.

QUESTION: What other decompositions have we covered in the class so far? Make a list and write down a short description on why we use each decomposition.

Put your answer to the above question here.


2. Decompositions

image showing how a matris is just a change of basis

Animiated Image from Wikipedia: https://wikipedia.org/

In numerical linear algebra, we factorize matrices to facilitate efficient and/or accurate computations (they are also helpful in proofs). There are many possible matrix decompositions. Some, e.g., the eigendecomposition, require the matrix to be square, while others, e.g., the $QR$ factorization, exist for arbitrary matrices. Among all possible decompositions (also called factorizations), some common examples include:

QUESTION: What decompositions have we covered in the class so far and how did we use them?

Your answer goes here


3. Assignment wrap-up

Please fill out the form that appears when you run the code below. You must completely fill this out in order to receive credit for the assignment!

Direct Link to Google Form

If you have trouble with the embedded form, please make sure you log on with your MSU google account at googleapps.msu.edu and then click on the direct link above.

Assignment-Specific QUESTION: What other decompositions have we covered in the class so far?

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QUESTION: Summarize what you did in this assignment.

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QUESTION: What questions do you have, if any, about any of the topics discussed in this assignment after working through the jupyter notebook?

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QUESTION: How well do you feel this assignment helped you to achieve a better understanding of the above mentioned topic(s)?

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QUESTION: What was the most challenging part of this assignment for you?

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QUESTION: What was the least challenging part of this assignment for you?

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QUESTION: What kind of additional questions or support, if any, do you feel you need to have a better understanding of the content in this assignment?

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QUESTION: Do you have any further questions or comments about this material, or anything else that's going on in class?

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QUESTION: Approximately how long did this pre-class assignment take?

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Congratulations, we're done!

Course Resources:


Written by Dr. Dirk Colbry, Michigan State University Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.