THE COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF MINES AND MINERAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
NUMERICAL METHODS: MA 311
MATRICES PRACTICE QUESTIONS
DATE: 18/02/2025
Q1. Consider the following system of equations:
7 x1 2 x2 3x3 12
2 x1 5 x2 3x3 20
x1 x2 6 x3 26
(i) Write the equation in the form Ax=b (ii) Compute the upper triangular matrix U using Gauss
Elimination. The end result of Gauss Elimination (without back-substitution) is matrix U. (iii)
Compute the lower triangular matrix L. The coefficients used in Gauss elimination to construct
the matrix U from the elements of matrix L. (iv) Find the solution of the system of equations using
forward and back substitution. Also solve the system for an alternative right-hand-side vector
[b]T = [12 18 -6].
Q 2. Perform Crout’s decomposition on:
2 x1 5 x2 x3 12
x1 3x2 x3 8
3x1 4 x2 2 x3 16
1
Q 3. Solve the following system of equations using the Gauss elimination method
2 x1 x2 x3 2 x4 0
x1 2 x2 x3 4 x4 3
3x1 x2 2 x3 x4 6
x1 2 x2 x3 2 x4 15
Q 4. Solve by Gauss-Jordan technique
2 1 1 x1 2
5 2 2 x 9
2
3 1 1 x3 5
Q 5. Three masses are suspended vertically by a series of identical springs where mass 1 is at the
top and mass 3 is at the bottom. If g = 9.81 m/s2, m1 = 2 kg, m2 = 3 kg, m3 = 2.5 kg, and the k’s =
10 kg/s2, solve for the displacements x.
Q 6. Solve using Gauss elimination technique
x1 x2 x3 3
6 x1 2 x2 2 x3 2
3x1 4 x2 x3 1
Q 7. For the following system of equations:
8 x1 2 x2 3x3 51
2 x1 5 x2 x3 23
3x1 x2 6 x3 20
(i) Use the Gauss–Seidel iterative method to εs ≤ 5%. (ii) Repeat with Jacobi iteration (iii) which
of the two methods is computationally efficient? NB: For the first guess of the solution, take the
value of all the unknowns to be zero.
THE END