Chapter 3

Introduction to Matrices
3.1 Introduction

Definition: Let and be positive integers. A rectangular array of (real) numbers

arranged in rows and columns

is called a matrix with rows and columns. Each real number is said to be an entry (or
element) of the matrix.
Remark: It is sometimes useful to define matrices whose entries are not necessarily real
numbers. However, we restrict to real numbers only.
Example 3.1
The following are examples of matrices:

If all the entries of a matrix are zero, then the matrix is called the zero or the null matrix. The
subscript of the entry designates the row in which the entry appears and the subscript
designates the column in which the entry appears. The double subscript is called the
address of the entry. The size of a matrix in which there are rows and columns of entries
is said to be by or , and the number of rows is always stated first.
Definition: A matrix that consists of a single row is called a row vector and an
matrix is called a column vector.
Definition: A matrix is said to be a square matrix of size if it has precisely rows and
columns. The main diagonal of a square matrix consists of the entries where
.
Frequently an matrix A is expressed as or simply as if the
size of the matrix is known or is immaterial.
Example 3.2

The matrix is a square matrix where the entries constitute

the main diagonal. The entry is 1 ( row, column) and the entry is 8.

Another matrix can be written using the abbreviated notation

can be written as .

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Definition: If some rows or columns (or both) of the matrix A are deleted, then the
remaining array is called a sub-matrix of A. It is customary to treat A as a sub-matrix of
itself.
The matrix yields the sub-matrix when the third column is deleted,

when the second column is deleted [6] when the first row, first column and third

column are deleted, when A is considered as a sub-matrix of itself.

Definition: Two matrices of the same size are equal if for all
and . Thus equality of two matrices can be stated only for matrices of same order.
Example 3.3
Consider the following matrices.

(i)

Here all corresponding entries of A and B are equal. Therefore, .

(ii) only if .

(iii) Here we can see that

3.2 Matrix Addition and Scalar Multiplication

Definition: Given two matrices their sum is defined to be

When two matrices are the same size, they can always be added together and we say that the
two matrices are conformable for addition.
Example 3.4

Consider the sum . Can we say that this sum is equal to ? The answer is
YES.
Definition: Given a matrix and a real number , then
.
The constant is called a scalar. Thus, a matrix is multiplied by a scalar when we multiply
every entry by that scalar. Multiplying a matrix by a scalar is called scalar multiplication.

The matrix is defined to be . If we have two matrices

, then subtraction is define by
A – B = A + (-1) B
Example 3.5

3.3 Properties of Matrices

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If and are any arbitrary matrices of size and if and are arbitrary real
numbers, then
I (i) is an matrix.
(ii) (Commutative property).
(iii) (Associative property).
(iv) There is a zero matrix of size such that
(v) For every matrix of size , there is another matrix such that
.
II (i) is an matrix
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
Example 3.6
Verify all the above properties when

and .

Solution 3.6
In I(i) we have to show that is a matrix.
which is a matrix.

I(ii) and . Hence

.
I (iii)

We have . So

Hence .

I(iv) .

I(v)

II (i) which is a matrix.

II(ii) .

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 .

Hence .

II(iii) .

Hence .
II (iv)

. So .

So .

II(v) Trivial
Example 3.7
Given find if .
Solution 3.7

Therefore,

3.4 Applications of Matrices

Suppose that a country’s sales manager for a certain make of cars (e.g. Peugeot) wishes to
keep a day-to-day inventory of the colours and models he has on hand. He requires that each
retailer (e.g. Tau Motors) should keep and report the inventory matrix of the following form:

where is the inventory for the dealer.

If there are four retailers, then the total inventory matrix is given by
.
Note: Matrix algebra has applications in multivariate analysis, linear programming, and
system of equations.

3.5 Matrix Multiplication

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Let be a row matrix and a column matrix. The product is a matrix
given by

Observe that the resulting matrix is of size and is simply the dot product of the vectors
represented by and .
Example 3.8

Find if and .

Solution 3.8

Note that this idea may be extended to more general matrices. However, we may restrict that
in order for the product to be defined the number of columns of must equal the
number of rows of . Thus, if is a matrix and is a matrix, then the product
is defined and it will be of order .
Example 3.9
Find if .
Solution 3.9

Here, , and .
Thus, in order to find the product of the two matrices and , the number of columns
of must equal the number of rows of . When this is so, we say that is conformable
for multiplication to B (or A and B are conformable for multiplication).

3.5.1 Pre-multiplication and Post-multiplication

In the case of real numbers, we have . But, for matrices, in general .
Consider the following examples:

1. Let and . Here, both and are defined.

.
This example shows that even if both and are of the same order, it is not necessary that
.

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In the product we say that has been pre-multiplied by and in the product we
say that has been post-multiplied by .

2. and .

Here, is not defined as the number of columns of (= 1) is not equal to number of rows
of (= 2).

3.6 Diagonal and Identity Matrices

Diagonal Matrix
A square matrix in which every entry off diagonal elements are zero is called a diagonal
matrix. The matrices

and are both diagonal matrices.

Result:
The square of a diagonal matrix is nothing but the the matrix with diagonal elements squared.
Example:

Let . Then .

Identity Matrix
An diagonal matrix whose entries on the main diagonal are 1’s is known as an identity
matrix. The following matrices are identity matrices.

and .

An identity matrix will be denoted by . The identity matrix, has the special
property that for any matrix, ,
Example 3.10

Let A = . Notice that here .

Then

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and =

Therefore,
Example 3.11
Multiply the following matrices, if possible:

(a) , (b) , (c)

(d) and (e) .

Solution 3.11

(a) (b)

(c) Not conformable for multiplication (d)

(e)

Example 3.12

Let , and

(a) Pre-multiply by (b) Post-multiply by

(c) Find (d) Find and ,
(e) Which matrices are diagonal?
Solution 3.12

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e) is a diagonal matrix.

3.7 The Transpose of a Matrix

Definition:

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Let be a matrix. The transpose of is formed by interchanging the rows and
columns of . That is, the row of becomes the column of the transpose of .
Similarly, the column of will be the row of the transpose of . The transpose of
is denoted by or , and it will be of order .
Example 3.13

Given , find .

Solution 3.13

Here, is of order . Therefore, will be of order and it is given by .

Example 3.14

If , then = .

Observe that the entry in the third row and second column of is in the second row and
third column of . In general, the entry of is the of .
Results:
(i) (ii) (iii) (iv)
Exercise:

Verify the above results for and .

3.8 The Determinant of a Square Matrix

The determinant is defined only for square matrices. It is considered as a function of all the
elements of the given matrix.

Method 1: Direct Expansion

Let us consider a square matrix A of order 2, say . Then the determinant of A is

computed as .

Example : Let . Then the determinant of A is given by .

Notation: The determinant of a matrix is denoted as .

When we have a matrix, the determinant is computed as follows.
Illustration:

Let . Then the determinant of A is computed as follows.

, where is the Minor corresponding to .

The minor is obtained by computing the determinant of the submatrix resulting from the
given matrix by omitting the row and column containing . The sign of a minor is
considered as the sign of .
Following are the possible minors for a matrix.
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Therefore, expanding using the first row, the determinant of A is given by

By expanding using the second row, we have

Thus it is equal to . Thus, we may expand using any row or any column to compute the
value of .

Example: Find the determinant of the matrix .

Expanding using the first row, we have

Now, we may verify that the value of the determinant is the same if we expand using any
other row or column. Let us expand using 2nd column.

Exercise: For this problem, verify that the value of the determinant remains the same if we
expand using any row or any column.

Method 2: Sirus’s Rule:

The determinant of a matrix = Sum of the products of the elements along the downward
arrow - Sum of the products of the elements along the upward
arrow

Example: Find the determinant of the matrix .

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Example: Find the determinant of the matrix .

3.9 Inverse of a Square Matrix

3.8.1 Introduction
In the algebra of real numbers when one is faced with the question of solving a single
equation where the standard approach is to pre-multiply both sides by or
to obtain . Since , we have and because 1 is the identity
element for multiplication, we have .
If for a given real number there is a real number or such that , then
we say that is the multiplicative inverse of . All real numbers except 0 have
multiplicative inverses. For example, the multiplicative inverse of 4 is because =

= 1.
We shall define a multiplicative inverse of a square matrix in the same way.
Definition:
If for a given matrix , if there exists another matrix designated by , such
that , then is said to be the inverse of .

For example, we shall say that is the inverse of , because

.
Theorem 3.1 (Without Proof)
If an matrix has a multiplicative inverse, then this inverse is unique.
To distinguish between those matrices that do have inverses and those that do not, the
following terms are defined.
Definition: An matrix is said to be invertible if exists and non-invertible if it
does not have an inverse.
Note: It is impossible for a non-square matrix to have an inverse.
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This is because, if is the inverse of , then . But, and should be
defined and should be of the same order as that of . This is possible only for square
matrices.
How do we determine when an matrix is invertible and how do we calculate
for invertible ?
There are two main methods for calculating .
1. If the matrix can be transformed by elementary row operations to the row
equivalent form , then is the inverse of .
2. Using cofactors of a matrix.
In this course, however, we shall only consider the first method to find the inverse of a square
matrix. The matrix is called the augmented matrix. The following example illustrates
this approach.
Example 3.14

Find the inverse of and .

Solution 3.14
First we write the augmented matrix and then carry out the row transformations to make the
original matrix as the identity matrix. In this process the identity matrix will become the
inverse of the given matrix.

Therefore, is the inverse of .

Proceeding in a similar way we can find the inverse of as follows.

Therefore, is the inverse of .

Exercise:
Verify that the answers are correct in both cases by computing and
.
Exercises

1. Given the matrices: and , find and .

2. If and compute and .

3. If and obtain .

Is it possible to compute ? Why?

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4. If verify whether , where and are identity

matrices.

5. If and compute

(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) Verify

(v) If , verify that .

6. If and , then under what condition is ?

7. Given the matrix state whether the following statements are true or

false. If false make the necessary correction.

(a) Matrix is a square matrix.
(b) Size of the matrix is .
(c) The main diagonal entries of matrix are –3, 3, 0.
(d) – 11 is a sub-matrix obtained by deleting first row, second row, second column and
third column.
8. Find the determinant of the following matrices

(i) (ii) (iii)

9. Find the determinant of the following matrices.

(i) (ii) (iii)

10. For Problem 9, compute the value of the determinant by expanding using a different
column or row and claim that the value of the determinant remains the same.
11. If obtain using the augmented matrix.
12. Find the inverse of the following matrices using the augmented matrix or otherwise.

(i) , ,

(ii) , , ,

13. A number of people were questioned about their income and their political affiliation.
The following results were obtained:
922 were Republicans earning less than $30000 per year.
317 were Democrats earning less than $30000.

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96 were Independents earning less than $30000.
192 were Republicans earning more than $30000.
128 were Democrats earning more than $30000.
63 were Independents earning more than $30000.
Display this information in matrix form.

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