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a) Let Q be an orthogonal matrix ( that is Q^TQ = I ). Prove that if λ is an eigenvalue of Q, then |λ|= 1.b) Prove that if Q1 and Q2 are orthogonal matrices, then so is Q1Q2.

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Answer: a) Let Q be an orthogonal matrix and let λ be an eigenvalue of Q. Then there exists a non-zero vector v such that Qv = λv. Taking the conjugate transpose of both sides, we have:

(Qv)^T = (λv)^T

v^TQ^T = λv^T

Since Q is orthogonal, we have Q^TQ = I, so Q^T = Q^(-1). Substituting this into the above equation, we get:

v^TQ^(-1)Q = λv^T

v^T = λv^T

Taking the norm of both sides, we have:

|v|^2 = |λ|^2|v|^2

Since v is non-zero, we can cancel the |v|^2 term and we get:

|λ|^2 = 1

Taking the square root of both sides, we get |λ| = 1.

b) Let Q1 and Q2 be orthogonal matrices. Then we have:

(Q1Q2)^T(Q1Q2) = Q2^TQ1^TQ1Q2 = Q2^TQ2 = I

where we have used the fact that Q1^TQ1 = I and Q2^TQ2 = I since Q1 and Q2 are orthogonal matrices. Therefore, Q1Q2 is an orthogonal matrix.

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User Mario Campa
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