(a) Suppose that $R$ is a commutative ring, $M$ an $R$-module generated by $m_{1}, \ldots, m_{n}$ and $\phi \in \operatorname{End}_{R}(M)$. Show that, if $A=\left(a_{i j}\right)$ is an $n \times n$ matrix with entries in $R$ that represents $\phi$ with respect to this generating set, then in the sub-ring $R[\phi]$ of $\operatorname{End}_{R}(M)$ we have $\operatorname{det}\left(a_{i j}-\phi \delta_{i j}\right)=0 .$

[Hint: $A$ is a matrix such that $\phi\left(m_{i}\right)=\sum a_{i j} m_{j}$ with $a_{i j} \in R$. Consider the matrix $C=\left(a_{i j}-\phi \delta_{i j}\right)$ with entries in $R[\phi]$ and use the fact that for any $n \times n$ matrix $N$ over any commutative ring, there is a matrix $N^{\prime}$ such that $N^{\prime} N=(\operatorname{det} N) 1_{n}$.]

(b) Suppose that $k$ is a field, $V$ a finite-dimensional $k$-vector space and that $\phi \in \operatorname{End}_{k}(V)$. Show that if $A$ is the matrix of $\phi$ with respect to some basis of $V$ then $\phi$ satisfies the characteristic equation $\operatorname{det}(A-\lambda 1)=0$ of $A$.