Confused between change-of-basis matrix and matrix of linear transformation

change-of-basislinear algebralinear-transformations

This is the problem I am trying to solve.

Let $\beta_1 = \bigl\{ (1,1,0), (1,0,1), (0,1,1) \bigr\}$ and
$\beta_2 = \bigl\{ (2,1,1), (1,2,1), (−1,1,1) \bigr\}$
be two ordered bases of $\mathbb{R}^{3}$. Then find a matrix representing the linear transformation $T: \mathbb{R}^3 \to \mathbb{R}^3$ which transforms $\beta_1$ to $\beta_2$.

The above problem has been posted multiple times on Stackexchange and everytime different solutions have been given. I am totally lost on what is the correct approach. I believe to some extent I am confusing change-of-basis matrix with matrix of linear transformation. Which of the below solution is correct?

  1. Solution 1: Find linear transformation using change of basis matrix. (I personally feel this is correct)
  2. Solution 2: Linear transformation matrix wrto 2 basis $\beta = \{ (1,1,0), (1,0,1),(0,1,1)\}$ and $\beta' = \{ (2,1,1), (1,2,1),(-1,1,1)\}$

Can someone please advise me on what is the correct approach to handle problems of above nature?

Best Answer

You're looking for a linear map $T$ such that $T \begin{pmatrix}1\\1\\0\end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix}2\\1\\1\end{pmatrix}$, $T \begin{pmatrix}1\\0\\1\end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix}1\\2\\1\end{pmatrix}$, and $T \begin{pmatrix}0\\1\\1\end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix}-1\\1\\1\end{pmatrix}$. To find a matrix for $T$ with respect to the standard basis using the change of basis formula, you'd note that $[T]^{\beta_1}_{\beta_2}$ is the identity matrix (the notation means "the matrix of $T$ with respect to initial basis $\beta_1$ and final basis $\beta_2$") and the change of basis formula says $$ [T]^\mathcal{E}_\mathcal{E} = [\operatorname{id}]^{\beta_2}_\mathcal{E} [T] ^{\beta_1}_{\beta_2} [\operatorname{id}]^\mathcal{E}_{\beta_1}$$ where $\mathcal{E}$ is the standard basis. The matrix in the middle is the identity, so the matrix of $T$ with respect to the standard basis is $[\operatorname{id}]^{\beta_2}_\mathcal{E} [\operatorname{id}]^\mathcal{E}_{\beta_1}$. The first of these matrices is easy: it records how to express the basis elements from $\beta_2$ as linear combinations of the standard basis, so it is just the matrix $\begin{pmatrix}2&1&-1\\1&2&1\\1&1&1\end{pmatrix}$ whose columns are the vectors from $\beta_2$. To find $[\operatorname{id}]^\mathcal{E}_{\beta_1}$ you could note that it is the inverse of $[\operatorname{id}]^{\beta_1}_\mathcal{E}$, which you can calculate like before then invert, or you could compute it directly using the definition of the matrix of a linear map. Either way you'd get $\begin{pmatrix}1/2&1/2&-1/2\\1/2&-1/2&1/2\\-1/2&1/2&1/2\end{pmatrix}$, and the product is $A=\begin{pmatrix}2&0&-1\\1&0&1\\1/2&1/2&1/2\end{pmatrix}$. You can check that this matrix really does map the vectors in $\beta_1$ to those in $\beta_2$, e.g. $A \begin{pmatrix}1\\1\\0\end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix}2\\1\\1/2\end{pmatrix}+\begin{pmatrix}0\\0\\1/2\end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix}2\\1\\1\end{pmatrix}$.

It's not necessary to use the change of basis machinery unless you want to practise doing it. You can just proceed directly by solving the system of linear equations for the entries of $[T]^\mathcal{E}_\mathcal{E}$ given by the requirements that it maps the entries of $\beta_1$ to $\beta_2$. Alternatively, and this is the method showin in the first link, if you can find scalars $a_{ij}$ such that $\mathbf{e}_j = \sum_i a_{ij}\beta_{1i}$ (where $\mathbf{e}_j$ is the $j$th standard basis vector and $\beta_{1i}$ means the $i$th basis vector from $\beta_1$) then applying $T$ to both sides and using linearity you have $T(\mathbf{e}_j) = \sum_i a_{ij}\beta_{2i}$, and this column vector is the $j$th column of $[T]^\mathcal{E}_\mathcal{E}$. Of course, these scalars $a_{ij}$ are exactly the entries of $[\operatorname{id}]^\mathcal{E}_{\beta_1}$ and $\sum_i a_{ij}\beta_{2i}$ is the $j$th column of the matrix product $[\operatorname{id}]^{\beta_2}_\mathcal{E}[\operatorname{id}]^\mathcal{E}_{\beta_1}$, so this is equivalent to the method above.

In your second link, the answers don't look correct to me. One of them computes the two matrices $M=[\operatorname{id}]^{\beta_1}_\mathcal{E}$ and $N= [\operatorname{id}]^{\beta_2}_\mathcal{E}$ in my notation (unfortunately the other way round to theirs) then says that $[T]^{\beta_2}_{\beta_1} =N^{-1}M$, but $[T]^{\beta_2}_{\beta_1}$ is the identity and in any case $N^{-1}M$ is not the matrix that we want.

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