Elementary Row Operations on a Matrix

The following operations on the rows of a matrix are called elementary row operations:
(i) Interchange two rows.
(ii) Multiply a given row by a non-zero constant.
(iii) Adding a multiple of a row to another row.
Notations for elementary row operations:
(i) Interchange the ith row and jth rows: Ri ↔ Rj .
(ii) Multiply ith row by a non-zero constant c: Ri → cRi .
(iii) Modify the ith row by adding to it c times the jth row (c 6= 0): Ri → Ri + cRj
Definition: Two matrices are said to be row equivalent if one can be obtained from the other
by performing a finite sequence of elementary row operations.
Elementary row operations and determinants:
Theorem: Let A and B be square matrices.
(i) If B is obtained from A by interchanging two rows of A, then det(B) = −det(A).
(ii) If B is obtained from A by adding a multiple of a row of A to another row of A, then
det(B) = det(A).
(iii) If B is obtained from A by multiplying a row of A by a non-zero constant c, then
det(B) = c det(A).
Row-echelon form of a matrix:
Definition: A matrix A is said to be in row-echelon form if it has the following properties:
1. If there are any rows in A consisting entirely of zeros (called zero rows) then appear below
all rows not consisting entirely of zeros (called non-zero rows).
2. In any non-zero row the first non-zero element from the left is 1. We call this the leading 1
of the row.
3. In any two successive non-zero rows, the leading 1 of the lower row occurs further to the
right than the leading 1 of the higher row.
A matrix in row-echelon form is said to be in reduced row-echelon form if every column that
has a leading one has zeros in every position above and below the leading 1.
Theorem: Every matrix is row equivalent to a matrix in the row-echelon form.
Finding the equivalent row-echelon form of a matrix:
1. Find the first column (counting from left to right) in A whose entries are not all zero. This
column is called the pivot column.
2. Find the first non-zero element in the pivot column (counting from top to bottom). This
element is called the pivot element.
3. If the pivot does not appear in the top row, interchange the top row and the row in which
the pivot appears, so that the pivot is now in the top row.
4. Multiply the top row by the reciprocal of the pivot.
5. Add appropriate multiples of the top row to all other rows so that all elements below the
pivot, in the pivot column, are reduced to zero.

6. Repeat the pivoting procedure to the submatrix obtained by disregarding the top row. This
is repeated until there are no more pivots. Then the matrix is in row echelon form.