Solution HSE.C22 Chris Black
The augmented matrix for the given linear system and its row-reduced form are: \begin{align*} \begin{bmatrix} 1 & -2 & 1 & -1 & 0\\ 2 & -4 & 1 & 1 & 0\\ 1 & -2 & -2 & 3 & 0 \end{bmatrix} &\rref \begin{bmatrix} \leading{1} & -2 & 0 & 0 & 0\\ 0 & 0 & \leading{1} & 0 & 0\\ 0 & 0 & 0 & \leading{1} & 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 a suitable choice of $x_2$, each solution can be written as \begin{align*} \colvector{2x_2\\ x_2 \\ 0 \\ 0} \end{align*}