Given two linear transformations, find the preimage of a given point for the composite transformation

286 Views Asked by At

If someone could run quickly through the theory and methods on this it would be hugely appreciated. Thank you.

Let $f: \Bbb R^2 → \Bbb R^2$ be reflection in the line $y = x$ and let $g: \Bbb R^2 → \Bbb R^2$ be clockwise rotation through $90^\circ$ around the origin.

Find the point $v = (x,y) \in\Bbb R^2$ such that $f(g(v)) = (−3,−2)$.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On

$f$ and $g$ are both invertible, so to find $v$ such that $f(g(v))=(-3,-2)$, you can just invert the transformations one at a time:

$$fg(v)=(-3,-2)\\ \iff g(v)=f^{-1}((-3,-2))\\ \iff v=g^{-1}f^{-1}((-3,-2)) $$

Naturally, $f^{-1}$ is just $f$ itself, since reflections are their own inverses, and $g^{-1}$ is the counterclockwise rotation by $90^\circ$.

Thus $f^{-1}((-3,-2))=(-2,-3)$ and $g^{-1}f^{-1}((-3,-2))=g^{-1}((-2,-3))=(3,-2)$.

If you are familiar with transformations via matrices (acting on the left of column vectors) then you can check that

The matrix for $f$ and $f^{-1}$ is $\begin{bmatrix}0&1\\1&0\end{bmatrix}$

and the matrix for $g$ is $\begin{bmatrix}0&1\\-1&0\end{bmatrix}$ and for $g^{-1}$ is $\begin{bmatrix}0&-1\\1&0\end{bmatrix}$. The composition $g^{-1}f^{-1}$ via matrix multiplication gives $\begin{bmatrix}-1&0\\0&1\end{bmatrix}$.