Applications of linear systems

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Intros
Lessons
  1. Applications of Linear Systems Overview:
  2. Linear Systems in Economics
    • A simple economy with sectors.
    • Solving the equilibrium prices
  3. Linear Systems with Chemical Equations
    • Balancing chemical equations
    • Solving for coefficients to balance
  4. Linear Systems with Network Flow
    • Nodes
    • Finding the general solution of the network flow
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Examples
Lessons
  1. Economics with Resources
    Assume that the economy has 3 sectors: Manufacturing, Services, and Extraction. Manufacturing sells 50% of its output to Services, and 50% to Extraction. Services sells 30% of its output to Manufacturing, 60% to extraction, and keeps the rest. Extraction sells 80% of its output to manufacturing, 10% to services, and keeps the rest. Find a set of equilibrium prices for when the extraction output is 80 units.
    1. Balancing a Chemical Equation
      Balance the following chemical equation using the vector equations
      Na3PO4+MgCl2 Na_3 PO_4+MgCl_2 NaCl+Mg3(PO4)2 NaCl+Mg_3(PO_4)_2
      1. Finding the General Flow Pattern
        Find the general solution of the network flow. Assuming that all flows are non-negative, what is the minimum value of x1x_1 and x2x_2?
        Find the general solution of the network flow
        Topic Notes
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        Applications of linear systems


        So far through our linear algebra course we have been looking into the methodology required while solving systems of linear equations with the use of notation of matrices. For the lesson of today, we will be talking about cases in which applying systems of linear equations is of benefit to resolve problems from varied distinct areas in life which, in our minds, we usually do not relate them much to the use of linear algebra.

        But before we can go ahead and check into different applications of systems of linear equations in real life, we need to know how to solve a system of linear equations itself. In other words, let us take a quick review on the methods shown in the past few lessons.

        How to solve systems of linear equations

        For problems solving systems of linear equations in linear algebra, we usually use the method of Gaussian elimination (also named row reduction) to find the values of the variables involved in the system after we have converted such system into a matrix equation of augmented form.

        If you remember from our lesson on solving a linear system with matrices using Gaussian elimination, the operations which can be applied to the rows of an augmented matrix in order to reduce it to an echelon form are:
        1. Interchanging two rows
        2. Multiplying a row by a constant (any constant which is not zero)
        3. Adding a row to another row

        One can also make combinations of these operations, and the resulting matrix, will be an equivalent simplified matrix which will allow us to see directly the value of each variable in the system. This final matrix is what we call the reduced row echelon form of the initial augmented matrix coming from a system of linear equations.

        In our lesson on row reduction and echelon forms we saw the algorithm that needs to be followed to in order to arrive to the reduced echelon form of a matrix:

        1. Look for the leftmost non-zero column. This is our pivot column
        2. Find a non-zero entry in the pivot column. This is our pivot position. It should be at the very top of the pivot column.
        3. Use matrix row reduction to make all the entries below the pivot equal to zero.
        4. Ignore the row with the pivot and now operate on the next one to the right. Repeat Step 1-3 again and again until you have worked through all of the columns.
        5. Find your rightmost pivot. Row reduce it until is equal to 1.
        6. Make all the entries above this pivot equal to 0.
        7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for all the pivots in the reduced matrix.

        Once the matrix in reduced echelon form, each row of such matrix will provide the final expression (or value) for the variable corresponding to each column on the matrix.

        Such methods have been extensively explained in the past lessons, so we recommend that if you still have a few doubts, you can go back and have a review (as a suggestion of the lessons you will be required to know for this one, you can go ahead and check all of the links we have provided through this reading).

        Applications of systems of linear equations

        On this section we will be looking at real-life problems involving linear algebra. The three types of real-life applications we will be looking at are:
        1. Linear systems in Economics
        2. Linear systems with Chemical Equations
        3. Linear systems with Network Flow

        Let us then jump in directly into solving examples of each area, remember: Our goal is to make all of these questions into a matrix and then solve.

        1. \quad Linear systems in Economics

        A country's economy is usually divided into sectors, a few that come to mind might be: manufacturing, services, energy and fuel, transportation, and other public or private sectors. Each of these sectors has a total output (which we will measure in dollars) for one year. This total output is the total amount of earnings for a year and is represented by the letter p, this particular revenue is then used, some or all of it may be invested by exchanging or buying from the other sectors in the economy.

        For all of this trade, there must exist an equilibrium price where each sector has:

        Income = expenses (expenditures)

        Which means that the total amount of income in a sector must be equal to the total amount of expenses, or in other words, the total amount of income is the most that a sector can spend either buying, trading, or even keeping its own capital.
        In economics, we can use linear algebra to determine the equilibrium price of outputs for each sector, take a look at the two examples below:

        Example 1

        Assume that the economy has 2 sectors: Transportation and Manufacturing.
        • Transportation sells 60% of its output to Manufacturing and keeps the rest of the output.
        • Manufacturing sells 80% of its output to Transportation and keeps the rest.
        Create an exchange table for this economy, and find the set of equilibrium prices.

        Solving systems of linear equations by graphing
        Table 1: Exchange table for economy in example 1

        On this exchange table, what you can see in the first two columns are the total outputs measured in dollars for one year for each of the two economic sectors given, in other words, this was their income for their year and how they put it out for others to buy. Notice the quantities have been rewritten down from the percentages provided to their equivalency in decimal notation. The rows for the table represent the expense each sector went through.

        Since total output is usually defined as PP, we call the first column PtP_{t} (for total output from transportation) and the second PmP_{m} (for total output from manufacturing) and following the principle of income = expenses we can form the next equations:

        0.4Pt+P_{t} \, + \, 0.8Pm=PtP_{m} = P_{t}
        0.6Pt+P_{t} \, + \, 0.2Pm=PmP_{m} = P_{m}
        Equation 1: System of linear equations to solve

        Where the left hand side of each equation represents the income and the right hand side represents the expenses of each economic sector.
        Now, since we will be solving this system of equations through matrix notation, we need to convert the system to an augmented matrix, but before we can do that, we need to pass all of the unknown variables (PtP_{t} and PmP_{m}) to the left side of the equations:

        0.4Pt+P_{t} \, + \, 0.8Pm=PtP_{m} = P_{t} \, \, - 0.6Pt+P_{t} \, + \, 0.8Pm=0P_{m} = 0
        0.6Pt+P_{t} \, + \, 0.2Pm=PmP_{m} = P_{m} \, \, - 0.6PtP_{t} \, - \, 0.8Pm=0P_{m} = 0
        Equation 2: System of linear equations to solve (pt. 2)

        We construct the augmented matrix and row reduce it to solve for the unknown variables:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 3: Producing an augmented matrix and solving for the unknowns

        As you can see, PmP_{m} is a free variable since there is no corresponding pivot for it on the augmented matrix, and so out solutions in parametric form are:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 4: Solutions in parametric form

        The set of equilibrium prices can be obtained by setting the free variable Pm=P_{m} = 1, therefore:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 5: Set of equilibrium prices


        Example 2

        Assume that the economy has 3 sectors: Manufacturing, Services, and Extraction.
        • Manufacturing sells 50% of its output to Services, and 50% to Extraction.
        • Services sells 30% of its output to Manufacturing, 60% to extraction, and keeps the rest.
        • Extraction sells 80% of its output to manufacturing, 10% to services, and keeps the rest.
        Find a set of equilibrium prices for when the extraction output is 80 units.

        Applications of linear systems
        Table 2: Exchange table for economy in example 2

        Following the same methodology we used in our last problem, we obtain the system of linear equations from the exchange table and move all of the unknowns variables to the left hand side.

        0.3Ps+P_{s} \, + \, 0.8Pϵ=PmP_{\epsilon} = P_{m} \, Pm+ \, - \, P_{m} \, +\, 0.3Ps+P_{s} \, + \, 0.8Pϵ=0P_{\epsilon} = 0

        0.5Pm+P_{m} \, + \, 0.1Ps+P_{s} \, + \, 0.1Pϵ=PsP_{\epsilon} = P_{s} \, \, 0.5PmP_{m} \, - \, 0.9Ps+P_{s} \, + \, 0.1Pϵ=0P_{\epsilon} = 0

        0.5Pm+P_{m} \, + \, 0.6Ps+P_{s} \, + \, 0.1Pϵ=PϵP_{\epsilon} = P_{\epsilon} \, \, 0.5Pm+P_{m} \, + \, 0.6PsP_{s} \, - \, 0.9Pϵ=0P_{\epsilon} = 0
        Equation 6: System of linear equations to solve

        We construct the augmented matrix and row reduce it to solve for the unknown variables:

        Applications of linear systems

        Applications of linear systems

        Applications of linear systems

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 7: Producing an augmented matrix and solving for the unknowns

        As you can see, PϵP_{\epsilon} is a free variable since there is no corresponding pivot for it on the augmented matrix, and so out solutions in parametric form are:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 8: Solutions in parametric form

        For this particular problem, it is asked to find the set of equilibrium prices when Pϵ=80P_{\epsilon} = 80 and so:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 9: Set of equilibrium prices


        2. \quad Linear systems with Chemical Equations

        In Chemistry, we can use linear algebra to balance chemical equations. Take a look at the next exercise to see the process:

        Example 3

        Having the next chemical reaction equation

        N2+H2N_{2} + H_{2} \, NH3 \, NH_{3}
        Equation 10: Unbalanced chemical reaction equation

        How do we balance a chemical equation? We use coefficients! The coefficients will allow us to find out the quantity needed of the molecules in the left hand side of the reaction, that would proportionally produce a certain amount of the compound in the right hand side of the reaction. Truly if you think about it, a chemical reaction equation can be looked as an algebraic expression too, where the variables would be the name of the elements, or molecules of compounds you are using throughout the reaction. In here,we have inputted coefficients inside parenthesis to balance equation 10:

        (x1)+N2+(x2)+H2(x_{1}) + N_{2} \, + \, (x_{2}) + H_{2} \, (x3)+NH3 \, (x_{3}) + NH_{3}
        Equation 11: Inputting coefficients to balance the chemical reaction equation

        How do we create a matrix and solve for the variables? This can be a little tricky, but for each element, element molecule or compound found in the chemical reaction, we construct a vector which lists the number of atoms of each reactant. Look how this is done for the reaction above:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 12: Column vectors representing the amount of atoms in each reactant

        Such column vectors can then be used to create the proper matrix to find the correct values for x1x_{1}, x2x_{2} and x3x_{3} which will balance the reaction equation. Thus, having the vectors above we obtain:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 13: From reaction equation to vector equation

        Notice how in the very right hand side we have a vector equation similar to those seen on our lesson about linear combinations and vector equations. We know that we can convert such equation into an augmented matrix, which we can later solve using the three types of matrix row operations through Gaussian elimination. But before we do that, we have to put all of the variables in the left hand side of the equation, so out vector equation is now:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 14: Putting all the unknowns variables on the left hand side of the vector equation/

        And so, the augmented matrix looks as follows:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 15: Augmented Matrix

        Using row reduction to obtain the value for each of the unknown variables corresponding to the matrix we obtain:

        Applications of linear systems

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 16: Row reducing the augmented matrix

        Where we can clearly see that x3x_{3} is a free variable. Thus the solutions in parametric form are:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 17: Solutions in parametric form

        Now, there is something important to consider in here: these cannot be our final solutions because these variables represent the coefficients of reactants in a chemical reaction equation, and thus, they MUST be full numbers (you cannot divide either atoms or molecules without changing their properties, and so, these need to be full numbers). And so, since x3x_{3} is a free variable, we can set it up to any value we want without changing the proportion within the variables. And so, we set x3=2x_{3} = 2 since is the smallest value it can have to produce full numbers as values for the rest of the variables. Thus:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 18: Final solution for the unknown variables

        So our balanced chemical reaction equation is:

        N2+3H2N_{2} \, + \, 3H_{2} \, 2NH3 \, 2NH_{3}
        Equation 19: Balanced chemical reaction equation

        In summary, we balanced by counting the number of elements in a compound, and turning each coefficient as a variable to solve. Let us work through another example of this below.

        Example 4

        Having the next chemical reaction equation:

        Na3PO4+MgCl2  Na_{3} PO_{4} \, + \, MgCl_{2} \;   NaCl+Mg3(PO4)2 \; NaCl \, + \, Mg_{3} (PO_{4})_{2}
        Equation 20: Unbalanced chemical reaction equation

        We input the unknown coefficients to be solved for:

        (x1)Na3PO4+(x2)MgCl2  (x_{1})Na_{3} PO_{4} \, + \, (x_{2})MgCl_{2} \;   (x3)NaCl+(x4)Mg3(PO4)2 \; (x_{3})NaCl \, + \, (x_{4})Mg_{3} (PO_{4})_{2}
        Equation 21: Inputting coefficients to balance the chemical reaction equation

        In order to write down the column vectors representing the number of atoms from each element involved, we first have to identify all of the type of elements that appear in the reaction equation. We have written the list as a column vector (to serve as template for each reactant vector) as is shown below:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 22: Column vector template for the chemical reaction

        And so, the column vector for each reactant is:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 23: Column vectors for each reactant

        Putting all of these vectors into a column vector equation we obtain the expressions below.

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 24: Vectors equation for the reaction

        And transcribing these vector equations into an augmented matrix we obtain:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 25: Augmented matrix

        Now let us row reduce this matrix into its reduced echelon form so we can find the value for each unknown:

        Applications of linear systems

        Applications of linear systems

        Applications of linear systems

        Applications of linear systems

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 26: Row reducing the augmented matrix and solving for the unknown variables

        And so our final solution in parametric form can be seen as:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 27: Parametric solutions for the unknown variables

        Notice that x4x_{4} is a free variable, and so, we can set it up to any value we want! The simplest value to choose for the free variable is to just make it equal to one:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 28: Final solutions for the unknown variables

        And the final chemical reaction equation is:

        2Na3PO4+3MgCl2Na_{3}PO_{4} \, + \, 3MgCl_{2} \, \, 6NaCl+Mg3(PO4)2NaCl \, + \, Mg_{3}(PO_{4})_{2}
        Equation 29: Balanced chemical reaction equation

        3. \quad Linear systems with Network Flow

        Network flow refers to a connected system, named the network, which has elements going in and going out (thus the term flow). A network in itself has a set of points called nodes which are the connections in a set of branches. In this way, each branch has a flow direction pointing to a node, and each node has flow in and flow out, meaning the elements traveling through the network will be passing through each node and the same amount of elements that arrive to each of them are the same ones that get out and go away (there are no losses).
        And so, we can use linear algebra to study the flow of some quantity through a network. Just keep in mind the rule for the nodes:

        Flow in = Flow out


        Example 5

        Find the general solution of the network flow. Assuming that all flows are non negative, what is the minimum value of x1x_{1} and x2x_{2}?

        Applications of linear systems
        Figure 1: Network with 3 nodes

        On this example we have three nodes, in order to obtain the equations related to the flow at each of them we first construct the next table with the elements that will be needed:

        Applications of linear systems
        Table 3: Flow in and flow out table for the network

        Which brings about the equations:

        50+x3=x1+ \, + \, x_{3} = x_{1} \, + \, 30 \, x1x3=(20) \, x_{1} \, - \, x_{3} = \text(20)
        x1=x2 x_{1} = x_{2} \, x1x2=(0) \, x_{1} \, - \, x_{2} = \text(0)
        20+x2=x3+ \, + \, x_{2} = x_{3} \, + \, 40 \, x2x3=(20) \, x_{2} \, - \, x_{3} = \text(20)
        Equation 30: System of linear equations obtained from the network flow

        Above we have written down the equations coming from the table, and we have put all of the unknown variables to the left hand side of each equation so we can convert the system into the next augmented matrix:

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 31: Augmented matrix

        Row reducing the equation in order to find the values for x1x_{1}, x2x_{2} and x3x_{3}:

        Applications of linear systems

        Applications of linear systems

        Applications of linear systems
        Equation 32: Row reducing the augmented matrix

        And so we have that the values of x1x_{1} and x2x_{2} are:

        x1=x3+ x_{1} = x_{3} \, + \, 20
        x2=x3+ x_{2} = x_{3} \, + \, 20
        x3=x3 x_{3} = x_{3}
        Equation 33: Values of the unknown variables

        In order to obtain their minimum possible value we can set the free variable x3x_{3} to our most convenient value for that purpose, in other words, let us choose x3x_{3}!
        For that, remember flow cannot have negative elements going into a node, but we can have zero elements going in (basically nothing going in, if you think about it, a negative value would actually mean the elements are going out and since these elements are in the other side of the equation they cannot be taken as negatives). And so, the smallest possible value of x3x_{3} is zero, therefore, the minimum values of x1x_{1} and x2x_{2} are:

        x1= x_{1} = 20 \, and x2= \, x_{2} = 20
        Equation 34: Minimum values of x1 and x2

        And that is our final answer!

        ***

        For even more examples on the applications of systems of equations we recommend you to take a look at these algebra notes, remember that as long as you have a linear system, you can convert it into matrix equations to solve. Also, a very interesting and modern application of linear systems can be studied on this innovating scientific paper published a few years ago about solving systems of linear equations on a quantum computer note how the possibilities are endless when knowing math!

        We hope you have enjoyed the lesson of today, see you in the next one!
        We will be looking at real-life problems involving linear algebra. The three types of real-life applications we will be looking at are:
        1. Linear systems in Economics
        2. Linear systems with Chemical Equations
        3. Linear systems with Network Flow

        In economics, we can use linear algebra to determine the equilibrium price of outputs for each sector. Note that in order to get the equilibrium price, we need to set

        Income = expenses (expenditures)

        In Chemistry, we can use linear algebra to balance chemical equations like:
        N2+H2 N_2+H_2 NH3 NH_3

        We do so by counting the number of elements in a compound, and turning each coefficient as a variable to solve.

        We can also use linear algebra to study the flow of some quantity through a network. Make sure that for each node:
        Flow in = Flow out

        Our goal is to make all of these questions into matrix, and then solve.