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Exercise 2180Linear algebra › Matrices and linear systemsL1Added 3 Nov 2026

Singular value decomposition of a 2×2 matrix

#SVD#singular values#orthogonal matrices

Statement

Compute the singular value decomposition of
A=(300−2).A = \begin{pmatrix} 3 & 0 \\ 0 & -2 \end{pmatrix}.

Hint

The singular values are the square roots of the eigenvalues of ATAA^T A.

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Solution

Compute ATAA^T A.
ATA=(300−2)(300−2)=(9004).A^T A = \begin{pmatrix} 3 & 0 \\ 0 & -2 \end{pmatrix}\begin{pmatrix} 3 & 0 \\ 0 & -2 \end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix} 9 & 0 \\ 0 & 4 \end{pmatrix}.

Singular values. The eigenvalues are 99 and 44, so the singular values are σ1=3\sigma_1 = 3 and σ2=2\sigma_2 = 2.

SVD. A=UΣVTA = U\Sigma V^T with UU and VV orthogonal. Here AA is already diagonal, so we can take
U=(100−1),Σ=(3002),V=(1001).U = \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 0 & -1 \end{pmatrix}, \qquad \Sigma = \begin{pmatrix} 3 & 0 \\ 0 & 2 \end{pmatrix}, \qquad V = \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 \end{pmatrix}.
Then UΣVT=(100−1)(3002)=(300−2)=AU\Sigma V^T = \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 0 & -1 \end{pmatrix}\begin{pmatrix} 3 & 0 \\ 0 & 2 \end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix} 3 & 0 \\ 0 & -2 \end{pmatrix} = A.

Conclusion. The singular values are 33 and 22, and the SVD is given above.