Solution HSE.C21 Chris Black
The augmented matrix for the given linear system and its row-reduced form are: \begin{align*} \begin{bmatrix} 1 & 4 & 3 & -1 & 0\\ 1 & -1 & 1 & 2 & 0\\ 4 & 1 & 6 & 5 & 0 \end{bmatrix} &\rref \begin{bmatrix} \leading{1} & 0 & 7/5 & 7/5 & 0\\ 0 & \leading{1} & 2/5 & -3/5 & 0\\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \end{bmatrix}. \end{align*} Thus, we see that the system is consistent (as predicted by Theorem HSC) and has an infinite number of solutions (as predicted by Theorem HMVEI). With suitable choices of $x_3$ and $x_4$, each solution can be written as \begin{align*} \colvector{-\frac{7}{5} x_3 - \frac{7}{5} x_4 \\ -\frac{2}{5} x_3 + \frac{3}{5} x_4 \\ x_3 \\ x_4} \end{align*}