Things to look out for in the exams

[Yendall]

Just clarifying some matrices: when we r given A(0) - initial state matrix, we use A(10) = T^10 * A(0)

but if we are given A(1) as an initial....we use A(10) = T^9 * A(1)

If you're given A(1), I'm not sure whether that would work. You could try it out I guess.

Say the inital state matrix is:

The transition matrix is:



If the initial state is  



So yes, it works.

Is that always the case? In MAV 2007 exam 2 Matricies Q4,b,c they give us I₀ and in the solution when they ask for 5th week they use T^4*I₀ instead of T^5*I₀. Also if they give us an intial state matrix, say S₂ does that mean to find S₄=T^4-2*S₂ therefore S₄=T^2*S₂

What was the context though? It could've been 'start of the fifth week' which is 'end of the fourth week'?
I'm not entirely sure on that, that doesn't seem like it would work though.

[TheRajinator]

Well I₀ was the intial state matrix for the first week. It was a typical this week, next week question and was basically asking find the number of people in the 5th week.