Practice question · Multiple choice
Gaussian elimination changes a system’s appearance completely while leaving its solutions untouched. What makes that legitimate?
Hints
- Ask whether you could undo each row operation.
- Two systems with the same solutions are equivalent, however they look.
Show the answer
C. Every row operation is reversible, so the solution set is kept
Why
Reversibility is what licenses the method. An irreversible operation, multiplying a row by zero, is excluded precisely because it would add solutions the original system did not have.
Practise Systems of Linear Equations and Gaussian Elimination
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