A true understanding of Matrices
by
Iota Does Maths
A mathematical study presented for the
Mathtok Community
Table of Contents
1 Basics of Matricies 2
1.1 What is a matrix and scalar Multiplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Matrix addition and subtraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Matrix multiplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Determinants and Elementary Row operations 5
2.1 Determinant of a 2 × 2 Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Determinant of a 3 × 3 Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 Determinant of a 3 × 3 matrix using Sarrus rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4 Elementary Row Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1
1
1.1 What is a matrix and scalar Multiplication
The definition of a matrix is a rectangular array of entries. This can be
represented through two types:
1 0 1 0
A= B=
2 −1 2 −1
When we have a matrix we need to identify the rows and columns which is
important so we can understand the properties of the matrix so the rows
are horizontal lines and the columns are vertical so we can represent this
here
1 2 3 a11 a12 a13
M = 4 5 6 A = a21 a22 a23
7 8 9 a31 a32 a33
When we multiply a scalar by a Matrix we have to multiply everything
this can be done in the following form:
a11 a12 Ka11 Ka12
K =
a21 a22 Ka21 Ka22
2
1.2 Matrix addition and subtraction
When adding a matrix it must not be a scalar because it will not be able to
work therefore we can only add a matrix to another matrix so for example
if we had two matrices below
2 5 1 7 −1 6
A= B=
−3 0 4 3 8 −2
And we were ask to solve A+B we should get the working out
2 5 1 7 −1 6
A= B=
−3 0 4 3 8 −2
2 + 7 5 + (−1) 1 + 6
A+B =
−3 + 3 0 + 8 4 + (−2)
9 4 7
A+B =
0 8 2
This would be the exact same for subtraction as well being able to just
subtract the numbers within the matrix
2 − 7 5 − (−1) 1 − 6
A−B =
−3 − 3 0 − 8 4 − (−2)
−5 6 −5
A−B =
−6 −8 6
3
1.3 Matrix multiplication
When we multiply a matrix we must understand the dimensions we are
multiplying from. So for matrix multiplication you must make sure that
the inner dimensions are both Equal.
2 1 4 0 2
A= B=
−1 3 1 5 −2
(2 ∗ 4) + (1 ∗ 1) (2 ∗ 0) + (1 ∗ 5) (2 ∗ 2) + (1 ∗ −2)
AB =
(−1 ∗ 4) + (3 ∗ 1) (−1 ∗ 0) + (3 ∗ 5) (−1 ∗ 2) + (3 ∗ −2)
9 5 2
CD =
−1 15 −8
Matrices are also associative where normal multiplication can be multi
changeable this is property of being commutative so if we show this by
multiplying the same matrices
1 2 2 0
C= D=
3 4 1 3
1×2+2×1 1×0+2×3
CD =
3×2+4×1 3×0+4×3
4 6
CD =
10 12
2×1+0×3 2×2+0×4
DC =
1×1+3×3 1×2+3×4
2 4
DC =
10 14
CD ̸= DC
4
2
2.1 Determinant of a 2 × 2 Matrix
The determinant is a function that takes a square matrix as an
input and outputs a scalar number.
This can only be done when the columns and rows are both equal to
each other so it can be done on squared matrices. The determinant is
represented as:
a b
det(M ) =
c d
The formula to actually find the determinant is when we do:
a b
det(M ) = = ad − bc
c d
There are actually many rules for the determinant we can display them
here now:
det(A) + det(B) ̸= det(A + B)
det(A) × det(B) = det(AB)
5
2.2 Determinant of a 3 × 3 Matrix
To find the determinant of a 3 × 3 dimensional matrix we must find the co
factors to find the co-factors we use the generalized formula which involves
breaking the 3 × 3 into a 2 × 2 determinant matrix to find the cofactor we
use formula:
Definition of Cofactor Formula
Cij = (−1) i+j det(Aij )
a11 a12 a13 2 −1 3
b21 b22 b23 0 4 5
c31 c32 c33 −2 1 6
So if we take the form of form of a in the first row and first column this
would be denoted in the formula as and I and j which we can use to plug
in the formula getting us -1 to the power of 2.
Here, the determinant cannot be in row 1 and the column of one leaving
us .
2 −1 3
4 5
0 4 5 =2
1 6
−2 1 6
2 −1 3
4 5 0 5 0 4
0 4 5 =2 − (−1) +3
1 6 −2 6 −2 1
−2 1 6
= 2[(4)(6) − (5)(1)] − (−1)[(0)(6) − (5)(−2)] + 3[(0)(1) − (4)(−2)]
= 2(19) + 10 + 24 = 72
6
2.3 Determinant of a 3 × 3 matrix using Sarrus rule
The Sarrus rule works with a 3 × 3 matrix and is used by reusing the
second two rows then doing diagonal multiplication to get our determinant
subtracting the bottom row from the top rule. The generalized formula
for this would be
a b c a b
d e f d e
g h i g h
Then after multiplying we should get our determinant in the form
det(A) = (aei + bf g + cdh) − (ceg + bdi + af h)
If we were to do this for a matrix with numbers such as the one we used
from the previous example
2 −1 3 2 −1
0 4 5 0 4
−2 1 6 −2 1
det(A) = 2 × 4 × 6+−1 × 5 × −2+3 × 0 × 1−3 × 4 × −2−2 × 5 × 1+−1 × 0 × 6
det(A) = 48 + 10 + 0 − (−24) − 10 − 0 = 72
The Sarrus rule works only for 3 × 3 matrices because as the
dimension of a matrix increases, the number of products required to
calculate the determinant also increases.
Therefore, the diagonal patterns used in Sarrus rule are not enough for
high dimensional matrices.
7
2.4 Elementary Row Operations
Elementary Row operations are the transformations that occur onto a
matrix these can be performed on rows and columns and are mainly used
for:
Inverse of a matrix
Gaussian Elimination
Lets assign a matrix first so if we let A be equal to the matrix below then
3 6 9
A= 0 3 6
−2 4 8
We can show our first rule which is that we can switch/swap rows and we
display this as
R2 ↔ R3
So, in the matrix, this would be
3 6 9 3 6 9
↔R3
0 3 6 −R−2−−→ −2 4 8
−2 4 8 0 3 6
Our second operation is that we can multiply a row by a scalar constant
3 6 9 1
R1 →R1
1 2 3
A = −2 4 8 −3−−−−→ −2 4 8
0 3 6 0 3 6
Finally our third operation discussed today is the idea of row addition
meaning you can add rows together
1 2 3 1 2 3
+2R1 →R2
−2 4 8 −R−2−−−−−→ 0 8 14
0 3 6 0 3 6