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Gauss elimination: 4x4 system

Short answer

Forward elimination reduces the system to upper triangular form; back substitution yields the solution x1=1.1000, x2=-2.2000, x3=-3.3000, x4=4.4000.

Solve the following system of linear algebraic equations using the Gauss Elimination Method. 2x1 + 3x2 + 2x3 + 5x4 = 11 4x1 + 2x2 + 2x3 + 4x4 = 11 4x1 + x2 + 4x3 + 5x4 = 11 5x1 - 5x2 + 3x3 + x4 = 11

Gauss elimination: forward elimination to upper triangular form, then back substitution.

Step 1: System

2x1 + 3x2 + 2x3 + 5x4 = 11
4x1 + 2x2 + 2x3 + 4x4 = 11
4x1 + x2 + 4x3 + 5x4 = 11
5x1 - 5x2 + 3x3 + x4 = 11

Step 2: Forward elimination (reduce to upper triangular form)

Augmented matrix [A | b]:

 2.0000   3.0000   2.0000   5.0000  |  11.0000
 4.0000   2.0000   2.0000   4.0000  |  11.0000
 4.0000   1.0000   4.0000   5.0000  |  11.0000
 5.0000  -5.0000   3.0000   1.0000  |  11.0000

R2 ← R2 − (2.0000) R1; R3 ← R3 − (2.0000) R1; R4 ← R4 − (2.5000) R1:

  2.0000    3.0000    2.0000    5.0000  |   11.0000
  0.0000   -4.0000   -2.0000   -6.0000  |  -11.0000
  0.0000   -5.0000    0.0000   -5.0000  |  -11.0000
  0.0000  -12.5000   -2.0000  -11.5000  |  -16.5000

R3 ← R3 − (1.2500) R2; R4 ← R4 − (3.1250) R2:

  2.0000    3.0000    2.0000    5.0000  |   11.0000
  0.0000   -4.0000   -2.0000   -6.0000  |  -11.0000
  0.0000    0.0000    2.5000    2.5000  |    2.7500
  0.0000    0.0000    4.2500    7.2500  |   17.8750

R4 ← R4 − (1.7000) R3:

  2.0000    3.0000    2.0000    5.0000  |   11.0000
  0.0000   -4.0000   -2.0000   -6.0000  |  -11.0000
  0.0000    0.0000    2.5000    2.5000  |    2.7500
  0.0000    0.0000    0.0000    3.0000  |   13.2000

Step 3: Back substitution

x4 = (13.2000) / 3.0000 = 4.4000
x3 = (2.7500 − (2.5000)(4.4000)) / 2.5000 = -3.3000
x2 = (-11.0000 − (-2.0000)(-3.3000) − (-6.0000)(4.4000)) / -4.0000 = -2.2000
x1 = (11.0000 − (3.0000)(-2.2000) − (2.0000)(-3.3000) − (5.0000)(4.4000)) / 2.0000 = 1.1000

Answer: x1 = 1.1000, x2 = -2.2000, x3 = -3.3000, x4 = 4.4000

✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)

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