OCR MEI Further Pure Core AS 2021 November — Question 4

Exam BoardOCR MEI
ModuleFurther Pure Core AS (Further Pure Core AS)
Year2021
SessionNovember
TopicMatrices

4 Anika thinks that, for two square matrices \(\mathbf { A }\) and \(\mathbf { B }\), the inverse of \(\mathbf { A B }\) is \(\mathbf { A } ^ { - 1 } \mathbf { B } ^ { - 1 }\). Her attempted proof of this is as follows. $$\begin{aligned} ( \mathbf { A B } ) \left( \mathbf { A } ^ { - 1 } \mathbf { B } ^ { - 1 } \right) & = \mathbf { A } \left( \mathbf { B A } ^ { - 1 } \right) \mathbf { B } ^ { - 1 }
& = \mathbf { A } \left( \mathbf { A } ^ { - 1 } \mathbf { B } \right) \mathbf { B } ^ { - 1 }
& = \left( \mathbf { A } \mathbf { A } ^ { - 1 } \right) \left( \mathbf { B B } ^ { - 1 } \right)
& = \mathbf { I } \times \mathbf { I }
& = \mathbf { I }
\text { Hence } ( \mathbf { A B } ) ^ { - 1 } & = \mathbf { A } ^ { - 1 } \mathbf { B } ^ { - 1 } \end{aligned}$$
  1. Explain the error in Anika's working.
  2. State the correct inverse of the matrix \(\mathbf { A B }\) and amend Anika's working to prove this.