{"id":24623,"date":"2025-06-18T16:32:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T16:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/?p=24623"},"modified":"2025-06-18T16:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T16:32:09","slug":"show-that-aat-is-symmetric-for-any-2-x-2-matrix-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/show-that-aat-is-symmetric-for-any-2-x-2-matrix-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Show that A+A^T is symmetric for any 2 x 2 matrix A"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Show that A+A^T is symmetric for any 2 x 2 matrix A. Is this true for any square matrix?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"><strong>The correct answer and explanation is:<\/strong><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Correct Answer:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, for any square matrix AA, the matrix A+ATA + A^T is symmetric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Explanation (300 words):<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To determine whether A+ATA + A^T is symmetric, we must recall the definition of a <strong>symmetric matrix<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>A matrix MM is symmetric if MT=MM^T = M, where MTM^T is the transpose of MM.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s test this with a general <strong>2 \u00d7 2 matrix<\/strong>: A=[abcd]A = \\begin{bmatrix} a &amp; b \\\\ c &amp; d \\\\ \\end{bmatrix}<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, the <strong>transpose<\/strong> of AA is: AT=[acbd]A^T = \\begin{bmatrix} a &amp; c \\\\ b &amp; d \\\\ \\end{bmatrix}<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, compute A+ATA + A^T: A+AT=[abcd]+[acbd]=[a+ab+cc+bd+d]=[2ab+cb+c2d]A + A^T = \\begin{bmatrix} a &amp; b \\\\ c &amp; d \\\\ \\end{bmatrix} + \\begin{bmatrix} a &amp; c \\\\ b &amp; d \\\\ \\end{bmatrix} = \\begin{bmatrix} a + a &amp; b + c \\\\ c + b &amp; d + d \\\\ \\end{bmatrix} = \\begin{bmatrix} 2a &amp; b + c \\\\ b + c &amp; 2d \\\\ \\end{bmatrix}<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This matrix is symmetric because the transpose of A+ATA + A^T is: (A+AT)T=[2ab+cb+c2d]T=[2ab+cb+c2d]=A+AT(A + A^T)^T = \\begin{bmatrix} 2a &amp; b + c \\\\ b + c &amp; 2d \\\\ \\end{bmatrix}^T = \\begin{bmatrix} 2a &amp; b + c \\\\ b + c &amp; 2d \\\\ \\end{bmatrix} = A + A^T<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, A+ATA + A^T is symmetric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>General Case: Any Square Matrix<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The above result isn&#8217;t limited to 2 \u00d7 2 matrices. For <strong>any square matrix AA<\/strong> (i.e., of size n\u00d7nn \\times n), we use the fact that: (A+AT)T=AT+(AT)T=AT+A=A+AT(A + A^T)^T = A^T + (A^T)^T = A^T + A = A + A^T<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the transpose of A+ATA + A^T equals itself, it is <strong>symmetric<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Conclusion:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Yes<\/strong>, A+ATA + A^T is symmetric for <strong>any square matrix AA<\/strong>, including 2 \u00d7 2 matrices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Show that A+A^T is symmetric for any 2 x 2 matrix A. Is this true for any square matrix? The correct answer and explanation is: Correct Answer: Yes, for any square matrix AA, the matrix A+ATA + A^T is symmetric. Explanation (300 words): To determine whether A+ATA + A^T is symmetric, we must recall the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quiz-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24628,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24623\/revisions\/24628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}