Having illustrated the notational advantage of using matrices and matrix multiplication, we now begin to discuss why there is also a conceptual advantage to matrix multiplication, a conceptual advantage that will help us to understand how systems of linear equations and linear differential equations may be solved.

Matrix multiplication allows us to view matrices as mappings from to . Let be an matrix and let be an vector. Then defines a mapping from to .

The simplest example of a matrix mapping is given by matrices. Matrix mappings defined from are where is a real number. Note that the graph of this function is just a straight line through the origin (with slope ). From this example we see that matrix mappings are very special mappings indeed. In higher dimensions, matrix mappings provide a richer set of mappings; we explore here planar mappings — mappings of the plane into itself — using MATLAB graphics and the program map.

The simplest planar matrix mappings are the dilatations. Let where is a scalar. When vectors are contracted by a factor of and and these mappings are examples of contractions. When vectors are stretched or expanded by a factor of and these dilatations are examples of expansions. We now explore some more complicated planar matrix mappings.

The next planar motions that we study are those given by the matrices Here the matrix mapping is given by ; that is, a mapping that independently stretches and/or contracts the and coordinates. Even these simple looking mappings can move objects in the plane in a somewhat complicated fashion.

The Program Map

We can use MATLAB to explore planar matrix mappings in an efficient way using the program map. In MATLAB type the command

map

and a menu appears labeled MAP Setup. The matrix has been pre-entered. Click on the Proceed button. A window entitled MAP Display appears. Click on Icons and click on an icon — say Dog. Then click in the MAP Display window and a blue ‘Dog’ will appear in that window. Now click on the Map button and a new version of the Dog will appear in yellow — but the yellow Dog is rotated about the origin counterclockwise by from the blue dog. Indeed, this matrix just rotates the plane counterclockwise by . To verify this statement just click on Map again and see that the yellow dog rotates counterclockwise into the magenta dog. Of course, the magenta dog is just rotated from the original blue dog. Clicking on Map again produces a fourth dog — this one in cyan. Finally one more click on the map button will rotate the cyan dog into a red dog that exactly covers the original blue dog.

Choose another icon from the Icons menu; a blue version of this icon appears in the MAP Display window. Now click on Map to see that your chosen icon is just rotated counterclockwise by .

Other matrices will produce different motions of the plane. You may either type the entries of a matrix in the Map Setup window and click on the Proceed button or recall one of the pre-assigned matrices listed in the menu obtained by clicking on Gallery. For example, clicking on the Contracting rotation button enters the matrix This matrix rotates the plane through an angle of approximately counterclockwise and contracts the plane by a factor of approximately . Now click on Dog in the Icons menu to bring up the blue dog again. Repeated clicking on map rotates and contracts the dog so that dogs in a cycling set of colors slowly converge towards the origin in a spiral of dogs.

Rotations

Rotating the plane counterclockwise through an angle is a motion given by a matrix mapping. We show that the matrix that performs this rotation is:

To verify that rotates the plane counterclockwise through angle , let be the unit vector whose angle from the horizontal is ; that is, . We can write every vector in as for some number . Using the trigonometric identities for the cosine and sine of the sum of two angles, we have:
This calculation shows that rotates every vector in the plane counterclockwise through angle .

It follows from (??) that . So rotating a vector in the plane by is the same as reflecting the vector through the origin. It also follows that the movement associated with the linear map where may be thought of as a dilatation () followed by rotation through ().

We claim that combining dilatations with general rotations produces spirals. Consider the matrix where . Then a calculation similar to the previous one shows that So rotates vectors in the plane while contracting them by the factor . Thus, multiplying a vector repeatedly by spirals that vector into the origin. The example that we just considered while using map is which has the general form of .

A Notation for Matrix Mappings

We reinforce the idea that matrices are mappings by introducing a notation for the mapping associated with an matrix . Define by for every .

There are two special matrices: the zero matrix all of whose entries are and the identity matrix whose diagonal entries are and whose off diagonal entries are . For instance,

The mappings associated with these special matrices are also special. Let be an vector. Then

where the on the right hand side of (??) is the vector all of whose entries are . The mapping is the zero mapping — the mapping that maps every vector to .

Similarly, for every vector . It follows that is the identity mapping, since it maps every element to itself. It is for this reason that the matrix is called the identity matrix.

Exercises

In Exercises ?? – ?? find a nonzero vector that is mapped to the origin by the given matrix.

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What matrix rotates the plane about the origin counterclockwise by ?
What matrix rotates the plane clockwise by ?
What matrix rotates the plane clockwise by while dilating it by a factor of ?
Find a matrix that reflects vectors in the plane across the axis.
Find a matrix that reflects vectors in the plane across the axis.
Find a matrix that reflects vectors in the plane across the line .
The matrix is a shear. Describe the action of on the plane for different values of .
Determine a rotation matrix that maps the vectors and onto the vectors and respectively.
Find a matrix that projects three dimensional space onto the plane. Hint: Such a matrix will satisfy
Show that every matrix of the form corresponds to rotating the plane through the angle followed by a dilatation where
Using Exercise ?? observe that the matrix rotates the plane counterclockwise through an angle and then dilates the planes by a factor of . Find and . Use map to verify your results.

In Exercises ?? – ?? use map to find vectors that are stretched and/or contracted to a multiple of themselves by the given linear mapping. Hint: Choose a vector in the MAP Display window and apply Map several times.

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In Exercises ?? – ?? use Exercise ?? and map to verify that the given matrices rotate the plane through an angle followed by a dilatation . Find and in each case.

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In Exercises ?? – ?? use map to help describe the planar motions of the associated linear mappings for the given matrix.

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The matrix reflects the -plane across the diagonal line while the matrix rotates the plane through an angle of . Using the program map verify that both matrices map the vector to its negative . Now perform two experiments. First using the icon menu in map place a dog icon at about the point and move that dog by matrix . Then replace the dog in its orginal position near and move that dog using matrix . Describe the difference in the result.