IB Maths AI HL AI 1.5 Matrices questions

Exam-style questions in the shape of Paper 1 and Paper 2, with full markschemes. Read the markscheme, or type, photograph or draw your answer and get it marked.

Question 1

Paper 1Hard6 marks

A field station sends four-letter locker identifiers using a linear code. The letters A to Z are represented by the integers 1 to 26, respectively. Each successive pair of letters is written as a column vector x\mathbf{x} and is encoded as y=Kx\mathbf{y}=K\mathbf{x}

The transmitted pairs, in order, are

(2714)and(4828).\begin{pmatrix}27\\14\end{pmatrix} \quad\text{and}\quad \begin{pmatrix}48\\28\end{pmatrix}.

The same encoding matrix was used for both pairs. It was one of

P=(2111)orQ=(1213).P=\begin{pmatrix}2&1\\1&1\end{pmatrix} \quad\text{or}\quad Q=\begin{pmatrix}1&2\\1&3\end{pmatrix}.
(a)

Show that P−1=(1−1−12)P^{-1}=\begin{pmatrix}1&-1\\-1&2\end{pmatrix}

[2]
(b)

Determine which matrix was used and hence decode the locker identifier. Justify your answer.

[4]