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Intermediate Methods: The Determinant

This document discusses the determinant of a matrix. The determinant determines whether a matrix is nonsingular. A square matrix is nonsingular if its determinant is nonzero. The determinant of a matrix is calculated by taking the sum of products of elements on the main diagonal and subtracting the products of elements on the counter diagonal. The determinant can be used to find the inverse of a matrix using the formula A-1 = (1/detA)AdjA and Cramer's rule for solving systems of equations.

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168 views5 pages

Intermediate Methods: The Determinant

This document discusses the determinant of a matrix. The determinant determines whether a matrix is nonsingular. A square matrix is nonsingular if its determinant is nonzero. The determinant of a matrix is calculated by taking the sum of products of elements on the main diagonal and subtracting the products of elements on the counter diagonal. The determinant can be used to find the inverse of a matrix using the formula A-1 = (1/detA)AdjA and Cramer's rule for solving systems of equations.

Uploaded by

hishamsauk
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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INTERMEDIATE METHODS:

THE DETERMINANT
THE DETERMINANT
 A determinant determines whether or not a matrix is
nonsingular.
 A square matrix is nonsingular if and only if the
determinant is nonzero.
 To mathematically define the determinant of a square
matrix, we must first define a Minor and a Cofactor.
 Minor:
 Let A be a nxn matrix. Let Aij be the (n-1)x(n-1) matrix
obtained by deleting row i and column j of A.
 The Minor of A is a scalar: Mij = detAij
 Cofactor:
 The cofactor of A is a scalar: Cij = (-1)i+jMij
THE DETERMINANT
 The Determinant:
 det A = a11C11 + a12C12 + ... + a1nC1n
 det A = a11M11 – a12M12 + ... + (-1)1+nM1n
 Example with a 3x3 Matrix:
a11 a12 a13
a22 a23 a21 a23 a21 a22
a21 a22 a23  a11  a12  a13
a32 a33 a31 a33 a31 a32
a31 a32 a33

 To compute the determinant of a 2x2 matrix (the det of a


1x1 matrix is simply the number) do the below:
a b
 ad  bc
c d
THE DETERMINANT
a11 a12 a13
 You can, in fact, use any column or
row to calculate the determinant for
the matrix – however, you must a21 a22 a23 
stick to it!
 Two main shortcuts when a31 a32 a33
calculating the determinant of a
Matrix:
 Triangular + Diagonal Matrices:  a11 a12 a13 
 The determinant is simply the  
product of the diagonal (top left to
bottom right) entries. Holds for both  a21 a22 a23 

upper and lower triangle matrices.
3x3 Matrices:
a a32 a33 
 Shown in the Matrix to the right.  31 
 Add together the products of the
elements on the red lines, subtract  a11 a12 a13 
the products of the elements on the a a22 a23 
blue lines.
 21
THE DETERMINANT
 Uses of the determinant are primarily for finding the inverse
and using Cramer’s rule.
 However, before that we must define an ADJOINT
MATRIX:
 An adjoint matrix is a transposed Matrix of cofactors. To obtain a
matrix of cofactors replace the i,jth element with Ci,j .
 To receive the Adjoint matrix, you then TRANSPOSE it.

 Inverse of a Matrix using determinants:


 A-1 = (1 / detA).Adj A
 Cramer’s Rule:
 Xi = (det Bi) / (det A)
 Where Xi is the ith unknown in the set X = (x1,..., xn)
 Where Bi is the Matrix A with the ‘ith’ column being replaced by the
right hand side column vector ‘b’:
 This is based off the logic that Ax = b

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