Chapter Three
3.1. Matrices, Determinant and Systems of Linear Equation
Matrices, which are also known as rectangular arrays of numbers or functions, are the main tools
of linear algebra. Matrices are very important to express large amounts of data in an organized
and concise form. The application of matrices are found in most scientific fields; such as
economics, finance, probability theory and statistics, computer science, engineering, physics,
geometry, and other areas.
Main Objectives of this Chapter
At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
• Understand the notion of matrices and determinants
• Use matrices and determinants to solve system of linear equations
• Apply matrices and determinants to solve real life problems
Definition of Matrix
Note: Matrix A of size m×n may also be expressed by A = [aij]m×n, where aij represents the
(i,j)th entry of the matrix [aij]
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Definition: A submatrix of matrix A is any matrix
which is obtained by deleting any
collection of rows and/or columns of matrix A.
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Exercise 3.1.
3.2 Matrix Algebra
Addition and Scalar Multiplication
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Matrix Multiplication
Definition: (Matrix Multiplication). Let A = [aij ]m x n and B = [bij ]n x p be two matrices.
Then the product of A and B, denoted by AB, is an m x p matrix whose (i; j)-th entry is
obtained by summing the products of the elements in the i-th row of A with corresponding
elements in the j-th column of B.
Remark. The product AB of two matrices A and B is defined only if the number of columns
in A and the number of rows in B are equal.
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Note: Martix multiplication has no commutative property. i.e Let A and B be two matrices,
then AB is not necessarily equal to BA. If A and B are any two diagonal matrices of the same
size, then AB = BA.
3.3 Types of Matrices
Row Matrix
A row matrix has only one row but any number of columns. A matrix is said to be a row matrix
if it has only one row. It is also called row vector.
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Column Matrix
A column matrix is formed by a single column. It is also called column vector.
Square Matrix
A matrix A is said to be square if it has the same
number of rows and columns.
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Diagonal matrix
A square matrix is said to be a diagonal matrix when all the entries
off the main diagonal are 0. i.e all the elements above and below the
main diagonal are zeros.
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Definition: The main or principal diagonal of a square matrix is the ordered set of elements
aij, where i = j, such as a11, a22, a33 etc.
Identity Matrix
An identity matrix is a square matrix which has all the main diagonal elements equal
to 1 and all the non-diagonal elements equal to 0. It is also called unit matrix.
Zero Matrix
A matrix is said to be zero matrix or null matrix if all its elements are zero.
Upper Triangular Matrix
In an upper triangular matrix, the elements located below the main diagonal are
zeros.
Lower Triangular Matrix
In a lower triangular matrix, the elements above the main diagonal are zeros.
Scalar Matrix
A scalar matrix is a diagonal matrix in which the diagonal elements are equal.
,
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Transpose Matrix
Given matrix A, the transpose of matrix A is another matrix where the elements in the
columns and rows have switched. In other words, the rows become the columns and the
columns become the rows. Transpose of a matrix A is denoted by At.
Properties of Matrix Transpose
Let A and B be two matrices and le α be a scalar, then
Exercise
Summary
A matrix is basically an organized box (or “array”) of numbers.
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Example
Here is a matrix of size 2 x 3 (2 by 3), because it has two rows and 3 columns
The matrix consists of 6 entries or elements. In general, an mxn matrix has m rows and n
columns and has mn entries.
Basic Operations
Basic Matrix Operations: Examples
Review Exercises
1. Write each sum as a single matrix:
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2. Let X be a matrix, then solve for X:
3. Find the product of each of the following matrices.
4.
3.4 Elementary row operations
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Elementary row operations are useful to find the rank of a matrix; to compute the
determinants of matrices; and to find the inverse of a matrix. Furthermore, elementary row
operations are widely used in solving systems of linear equations.
In this section, we introduce the elementary row operations and apply these operations to
transform the given matrix into different form.
Elementary Row Operations (EROs) represent the legal moves that allow us to write a
sequence of row-equivalent matrices (corresponding to equivalent systems) until we obtain
one whose corresponding solution set is easy to find. There are three types of EROs:
Interchanging: Interchange the positions of two rows
Multiplication: Multiply a row by a non-zero scalar
Addition: Add to one row a scalar multiple of another.
Definition: Elementary Row Operations
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Note: If the matrix subject to elementary row operations is associated to a system of linear
equations, then these operations do not change the solution set. Row operations can make the
problem easier.
3.5 Determinant and its properties
The determinant is a function that takes a square matrix as an input and produces a scalar
as an output. It has many beneficial properties for studying, matrices and systems of
equations.
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3.7. System of Linear Equations
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3.7.2 Cramer’s rule
Cramer’s Rule is a method for solving linear systems where the number of equations and
the number of unknowns are equal. Cramer’s rule relies on determinants.
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Remark: Cramer’s rule doesn’t work if the determinant of the coefficient matrix is zero or
the coefficient matrix is not square.
Exercises
3.7.3 Inverse method
The Inverse method is one of the important methods
to solve a linear system with n equations in n
unknowns.
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Review exercises
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