Problem bank

Problem 289 of 333EasyLinear AlgebraP289

Building positions from three baskets

  1. A desk can trade three stock baskets, long or short, in any size. One unit of basket 1 holds 1 share of X and 2 of Y. One unit of basket 2 holds 1 share of Y and 3 of Z. One unit of basket 3 holds 2 of X, 5 of Y and 3 of Z. Writing each basket's holdings in (X, Y, Z) as a row:

    W=(120013253)W = \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 2 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 & 3 \\ 2 & 5 & 3 \end{pmatrix}

    Compute det⁡W\det W. Can the desk end up holding exactly one share of Z and nothing else, using only the baskets? Which target holdings (x,y,z)(x, y, z) can it reach?