General Mathematics VU

Matrices and Determinants Topic 3

• Definition: A matrix is a rectangular arrangement of numbers in rows and columns. The

order of a matrix is the number of the rows and columns. The entries are the numbers in the
matrix.

• Notation: A matrix A is written as follows:

where ars represents the entry in the rth row and sth column. A matrix with m rows and n
columns is said to have order m x n.

• Operations on Matrices:

o Addition of Matrices: To add two matrices, they must have the same order. To add,
we simply add corresponding entries.
o Example:

o Subtraction of Matrices: To subtract two matrices, they must have the same order.
We simply subtract corresponding entries.
o Example:

o Multiplication by a Scalar: In matrix algebra, a real number is often called a scalar.

To multiply a matrix by a scalar, we multiply each entry in the matrix by that scalar.
o Example:

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o Matrix Multiplication: Given an r x c matrix A and an s x d matrix B, we can

multiply A with B to form the matrix AB if c = s. The resulting matrix will have
dimension r x d.
To multiply two matrices, we multiply each row in the first matrix by each column in
the second matrix. An example is shown below:

, ,
We can multiply to form the matrix C = AB since the number of columns of A is
equal to the number of rows of B. The multiplication is carried out as follows:

o Example:

• Definition: A Square matrix with ones on the diagonal and zeros elsewhere is called an
identity matrix. It is denoted by I.

• Example: The 4 x 4 identity matrix is:

• Definition: Given a square matrix B, if there exists a matrix D such that BD = DB = I, then D
is called the inverse of B, and is denoted by D = B-1.

• Given a system of equations , it can be written as a matrix equation ,

where A is the matrix of the coefficients, is the column matrix of the variables and is the
column matrix of the constants. i.e.

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If A-1 exists then the system has a unique solution given by

• Definition: A matrix is in echelon form if it has the following properties

o Every non-zero row begins with a 1 (called a leading 1)
o Every leading one in a lower row is further to the right of the leading one above it.
o If there are zero rows, they are at the end of the matrix

A matrix is in reduced echelon form if in addition to the above three properties it also has
the following property:
o Every other entry in a column containing a leading one is zero

• Methods for finding Solutions of Equations:

o Using Row Operations: Recall that when we are solving simultaneous equations, the
system of equations remains unchanged if we perform the following operations:

 Multiply an equation by a non-zero constant

 Add a multiple of one equation to another equation
 Interchange two equations.

We have seen that any system of equations can be written as a matrix system. i.e. the
two systems are equivalent.
So, given a system Ax = b we can form the augmented matrix (Ab) by attaching an
additional column at the end of the matrix A with entries from matrix b. Since the
original system of equations remains unchanged as described above, the system
described by the augmented matrix (Ab) also remains unchanged under the following
row operations:

 Multiply a row by a non-zero constant

 Add a multiple of one row to another row
 Interchange two rows.

Using row operations, we will change the matrix (Ab) to an Echelon form or a
reduced Echelon form. Once that is achieved, the solution will be easily found.

Example: Solve the following system of equations:

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Solution: The system can be written in matrix form as:

The augmented matrix is

This gives the solution: x = 0, y = 1, z = -1

o Solving Equations using Inverse: If we could find A-1, we could also solve the system
by using . One way to find inverse is as follows:

o Theorem: Given a nxn matrix A, if the augmented matrix (AI), where I is the nxn
identity matrix, can be row reduced to a matrix (IB), then B is the inverse of A. If (AI)
cannot be reduced to (IB), then A does not have an inverse.

o Example: Solve the system of equations:

Solution: The matrix A of the coefficients is

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To find A-1 we use the above theorem

So,

This gives the solution

• Definition: Let M be the set of all square matrices. Then the Determinant is a function from M to
the set of real numbers. i.e. the determinant is a process of attaching a real number to every
square matrix.

• Notation: If A is a square matrix, then determinant of A is denoted by detA or |A|

• Example: det =

• Second Order Determinant: A 2 x 2 determinant can be found using the following method:

• Example:

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• Definition: The Minor of an element in a third-order determinant is a second-order determinant

obtained by deleting the row and column that contains the element.

• Example: Given

The Minor of

The Minor of

• Definition: The Cofactor of (Minor of )

• The cofactor of is denoted by

• Thus, the cofactor of an element is nothing more than a signed minor.

• Example: Given

The Cofactor of

The Cofactor of

• Theorem: The value of a determinant of order 3 is the sum of three products obtained by
multiplying each element of any one row (or each element of any one column) by its cofactors.

• Note: The above theorem and definitions of minor and cofactor generalize completely for
determinants of order higher than 3

• Example: Evaluate

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Solution: We expand by the first row to get:

• Finding Inverse Using Determinants

• Definition: Given a matrix A, the transpose of A denoted AT is the matrix obtained by

interchanging the rows of A with its columns.

• Example: The transpose of is

• Definition: Given a matrix A, calculate all the cofactors of A. We then form the matrix of
the cofactors. The Adjoint or Adjugate of A is the transpose of the matrix of the cofactors. i.e.

• The inverse of A is then found by the formula:

• Example: Find the inverse of the following matrix using determinant.

Solution: We need to first find all the cofactors.

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Now, . And

Therefore,

• Cramer’s Rule for Solving Systems of Equations: Suppose we are given a system of 2 equations
in 2 unknowns as follows:

Then, the solution is given by: and , where , and

Similarly, for a system involving three unknowns and three equations:

The solution is given by , and , where ,

, and

• Example: Solve using Cramer’s Rule:

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Solution:

, , and

So, by Cramer’s Rule: , , .

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