Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations

In this lecture, we shall apply the theory discussed in the last two lectures to obtain
important theoretical formulas and a geometric interpretation of the determinant.

Cramer’s Rule: Cramer’s rule is needed in a variety of theoretical calculations. For

instance, it can be used to study how the solution of Ax = b is affected by changes in the
entries of b. However, the formula is inefficient for hand calculations, except for 2  2 or
perhaps 3  3 matrices.

Theorem 1 (Crammer’s Rule): Let A be an invertible n  n matrix. For any b in Rn, the
unique solution x of Ax = b has entries given by
det Ai (b)
xi  , i  1, 2,..., n (1)
det A

Example 1: Use Cramer’s rule to solve the system

3x1  2 x2  6
5 x1  4 x2  8
Solution: Write the system in matrix form, Ax = b

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

 3 2   x1   6 
 5 4   x   8 
  2  
where
 3 2  x  6 
A   , x   1  &b   
 5 4   x2  8 
 3 2 
det A    12  10  2
 5 4 
6 2   3 6
A1 (b)    , A2 (b)   
8 4   5 8 

Since det A = 2, the system has a unique solution. By Cramer’s rule,

det A1 (b) 24  16
x1    20
det A 2
det A2 (b) 24  30
x2    27
det A 2
Example 2: Consider the following system in which s is an unspecified parameter.
Determine the values of s for which the system has a unique solution and use Cramer’s
3sx  2 x2  4
rule to describe the solution. 1
6 x1  sx2  1

Solution: Here

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

 3s 2  4  4 2  3s 4
A  , b    , A1 (b)   , A2 (b)   
 6 s  1  1 s   6 1 
Since det A  3s 2  12  3( s  2)( s  2)
the system has a unique solution when
det A  0
 3( s  2)( s  2)  0
 s2  4  0
 s  2

For such an s, the solution is (x1, x2), where

det A1 (b) 4s  2
x1   , s  2
det A 3( s  2)( s  2)
det A2 (b) 3s  24 s 8
x2    , s  2
det A 3( s  2)( s  2) ( s  2)( s  2)

Example 3: Solve, by Cramer’s Rule, the system of equations:

2 x1  x2  3x3  1
x1  2 x2  x3  2
3x1  2 x2  2 x3  3

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

 2 1 3  1  1 1 3 
Solution: Here A  1 2 1 , b   2  , A1   2 2 1
   
 3 2 2   3   3 2 2 
2 1 3   2 1 1 
A2  1 2 1 , A3  1 2 2 
 
 3 3 2   3 2 3 
D  det A  2  6  1 (5)  3(4)  5
D1  det A1b  1 6  2  8  3(5)  7
D2  det A2b  2  (7)  1 (5)  3(3)  0
D3  det A3b  2  (2)  1 ( 3)  1( 4)  3
D1 7 D D 3
So x1   , x2  2  0, x3  3  
D 5 D D 5

Example 4: Use Cramer’s Rule to solve.

x1  2 x3  6
3 x1  4 x2  6 x3  30
 x1  2 x2  3 x3  8
Solution:
 1 0 2 6
A   3 4 6  , b  30 
 
 1 2 3   8 

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

 6 0 2  1 6 2 1 0 6
 A1  30 4 6  , A2   3 30 6 
  A3   3 4 30 
 8 2 3   1 8 3   1 2 8 
Therefore,
det( A1b) 40 10 det( A2b) 72 18
x1    , x2   
det( A) 44 11 det( A) 44 11
det( A3b) 152 38
x3   
det( A) 44 11

Note: For any n  n matrix A and any b in Rn, let Ai(b) be the matrix obtained from A by
replacing ith column by the vector b.
Ai (b)   a1 ... b ... an 

ith column
Formula for A–1 :
Cramer’s rule leads easily to a general formula for the inverse of n  n matrix A. The
jth column of A-1 is a vector x that satisfies Ax = ej
where ej is the jth column of the identity matrix, and the ith entry of x is the (i, j)-entry of
A-1. By Cramer’s rule,

(i, j)  entry of A1  xij  deti A j

det A (e )
(2)
Recall that Aji denotes the submatrix of A formed by deleting row j and column i. A
cofactor expansion down column i of Ai(ej) shows that

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

det Ai (e j )  (1)i  j det Aji  C ji (3)

where Cji is a cofactor of A.
By (2), the (i, j)-entry of A-1 is the cofactor Cji divided by det A.
[Note that the subscripts on Cji are the reverse of (i, j).] Thus
 C11 C21 ... Cn1 
 ... Cn 2 
1 C12 C22
A1  (4)
det A  
 
C1n C2 n ... Cnn 
The matrix of cofactors on the right side of (4) is called the adjugate (or classical
adjoint) of A, denoted by adj A. (The term adjoint also has another meaning in advance
texts on linear transformations.) The next theorem simply restates (4).

Theorem 2 (An Inverse Formula):

1
Let A be an invertible n  n matrix, then A1  adj A
det A
Example:

For the matrrix say

 2 3
A   det A  10  (3)  13
 1 5
 A 1 will also be a 2  2 matrix
As
Aji  submatrix of A formed by deleting row j and column i
So in this case

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

A11  submatrix of A formed by deleting row 1 and column 1 = 5

A12  submatrix of A formed by deleting row 1 and column 2 =  1
A21  submatrix of A formed by deleting row 2 and column 1 = 3
A22  submatrix of A formed by deleting row 2 and column 2 =  2
and
det Ai (e j )  (1)i  j det( Aji )  C ji
where e j is the jth column of identity matrix I nn
So in this case
C11  det A1 (e1 )  ( 1)11 det A11  (1) det[5]  5
C12  det A2 (e1 )  ( 1)1 2 det A12  ( 1) det[ 1]  ( 1)(1)  1
C21  det A1 (e2 )  ( 1) 21 det A21  ( 1) det[3]  3
C22  det A2 (e2 )  ( 1) 2 2 det A22  (1) det[2]  2
By Cramer’s rule,

(i, j )  entry of A1  xij  deti A j  detjiA

det A (e ) C

So for the current matrix;

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

(1,1)  entry of A   x
1
11
det A1 (e1 )

det A
C
 11 
det A 13
5

3
(1, 2)  entry of A1  x12  detdetA1 (Ae2 )  det
C21

A 13

(2,1)  entry of A1  x21  detdetA2 A(e1 )  det

C12
A 13

1

(2, 2)  entry of A1  x22  detdetA2 A(e2 )  det

C22
A 13

2

Hence by using equation # 4, we get

 C11 C21  5 3 
 x x   det A det A  1  C C  13 13 
A1   11 12     
11 21
  
 x21 x22   C12 C22  det A C12 C22   1 2
 det A det A  13 13 
2 1 3 
Example 5: Find the inverse of the matrix A  1 1 1  .
1 4 2 
Solution: The nine cofactors are
1 1 1 1 1 1
C11    2, C12    3, C13   5
4 2 1 2 1 4

1 3 2 3 2 1
C21    14, C22    7, C23    7
4 2 1 2 1 4

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

1 3 2 3 2 1
C31    4, C32    1, C33    3
1 1 1 1 1 1
The adjoint matrix is the transpose of the matrix of cofactors. [For instance, C12 goes in
the (2, 1) position.] Thus
 C11 C21 C31   2 14 4 
adjA  C12 C22 C32    3 7 1 
C13 C23 C33   5 7 3
We could compute det A directly, but the following computation provides a check on the
calculations above and produces det A:
 2 14 4   2 1 3  14 0 0 
(adjA). A   3 7 1  1 1 1    0 14 0   14 I
 5 7 3 1 4 2   0 0 14 
Since (adj A) A = 14 I, Theorem 2 shows that det A = 14 and
 2 14 4   2 /14 14 /14 4 /14 
A1   3 7 1    3 /14 7 /14 1/14 
1
14
 5 7 3  5 /14 7 /14 3 /14 

Determinants as Area or Volume:

In the next application, we verify the geometric interpretation of determinants and we
assume here that the usual Euclidean concepts of length, area, and volume are already
understood for R2 and R3.

Theorem 3: If A is a 2  2 matrix, the area of the parallelogram determined by the

columns of A is det A . If A is a 3  3 matrix, the volume of the parallelepiped determined
by the columns of A is det A .

Example 6: Calculate the area of the parallelogram determined by the points (-2, -2),
(0, 3), (4, -1) and (6, 4).

Solution:
Let A(-2,-2), B(0,3), C(4,-1) and D(6,4). Fixing one point say A(-2,-2) and find the
adjacent lengths of parallelogram which are given by the column vectors as follows;

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

0  (2)   2 
AB    
 3  (2)   5 
 4  (2)  6 
AC    
 1  (2)  1 

So the area of parallelogram ABCD determined by above column vectors

2 6
= det    2  30  28  28
5 1
Now we translate the parallelogram ABCD to one having the origin as a vertex. For
which we subtract the vertex (-2, -2) from each of the four vertices. The new
parallelogram has the vertices say
A=(-2-(-2),-2-(-2))=(0, 0)
B=(0-(-2),3-(-2))=(2, 5)
C=(4-(-2),-1-(-2))=(6,1)
D=(6-(-2),4-(-2))=(8, 6)
And fixing A(0, 0) in this case, so
2  0 2
AB    
5  0  5 
6  0  6 
AC     
5  0  5 
See Fig below. The area of this parallelogram is also determined by the above columns

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

2 6
vectors = det    2  30  28  28
5 1

Translating a parallelogram does not change its area

Linear Transformations:
Determinants can be used to describe an important geometric property of linear
transformations in the plane and in R3. If T is a linear transformation and S is a set in the
domain of T, let T (S) denote the set of images of points in S. We are interested in how
the area (or volume) of T (S) compares with the area (or volume) of the original set S.
For convenience, when S is a region bounded by a parallelogram, we also refer to S as a
parallelogram.

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

Theorem 4: Let T : R2  R2 be the linear transformation determined by a 2  2 matrix

A. If S is a parallelogram in R2, then
{area of T (S)} = |detA|. {area of S}
If T is determined by a 3 x 3 matrix A, and if S is a parallelepiped in R3, then
{volume of T (S)} = |detA|. {volume of S}

Example 7: Let a and b be positive numbers. Find the area of the region E bounded by
x2 x 2
the ellipse whose equation is 12  22  1 .
a b

Solution: We claim that E is the image of the unit disk D under the linear transformation
a 0
A:D→E determined by the matrix A    , given as
0 b
u  x 
Au = x where u =  1   D , x =  1   E .
u2   x2 
 a 0   u1   x1 
     
 0 b  u2   x2 
 au1   x 
Now Au = x      1  then
bu2   x2 
 au1  x1 and bu2  x2
x x
 u1  1 and u2  2
a b

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

Since u  D (in the circular disk),it follows that the distance of u from origin will be less
than unity i-e
 u12  0    u22  0   1
2 2
x  x  x x
  1   2  1 u1  1 , u2  2
a b a b
Hence by the generalization of theorem 4,
{area of ellipse} = {area of A(D)} (here T  A)
= |det A|. {area of D}
= ab.  (1)2 =  ab

u2
x2

D E
1 u1 a x1

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

1 5 
Example 8: Let S be the parallelogram determined by the vectors b1    and b2    ,
3 1
1 1
and let A    . Compute the area of image of S under the mapping x  Ax .
0 2 
1 5
Solution: The area of S is det    14 , and det A = 2. By theorem 4, the area of
3 1 
image of S under the mapping x  Ax is |det A|. {area of S} = 2.14 = 28

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

Exercises:

Use Cramer’s Rule to compute the solutions of the systems in exercises 1 and 2.

2x1 + x2 =7 2x1 + x2 + x3 = 4
1. -3x1 + x3 = -8 2. -x1 + 2x3 = 2
x2 + 2x3 = -3 3x1 + x2 + 3x3 = -2

In exercises 3-6, determine the values of the parameter s for which the system has a
unique solution, and describe the solution.

6sx1 +4x2 = 5 3sx1 - 5x2 = 3

3. 4.
9x1 + 2sx2 = -2 9x1 + 5sx2 = 2

sx1 - 2sx2 = -1 2sx1 + x2 = 1

5. 6.
3x1 +6sx2 = 4 3sx1 +6sx2 = 2

In exercises 7 and 8, compute the adjoint of the given matrix, and then find the inverse of
the matrix.

3 5 4  3 0 0
7.  1 0 1  8.  -1 1 0 
 2 1 1  -2 3 2 

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

In exercises 9 and 10, find the area of the parallelogram whose vertices are listed.

9. (0, 0), (5, 2), (6, 4), (11, 6) 10. (-1, 0), (0, 5), (1, -4), (2, 1)

11. Find the volume of the parallelepiped with one vertex at the origin and adjacent
vertices at (1, 0, -2), (1, 2, 4), (7, 1, 0).

12. Find the volume of the parallelepiped with one vertex at the origin and adjacent
vertices at (1, 4, 0), (-2, -5, 2), (-1, 2, -1).

-2  -2 
13. Let S be the parallelogram determined by the vectors b1 =   and b2 =   , and
3 5 
 6 -2 
let A =   . Compute the area of the image of S under the mapping x  Ax .
-3 2 

4 0 
14. Let S be the parallelogram determined by the vectors b1 =   and b2 =   , and
-7 
1  
7 2 
let A =   . Compute the area of the image of S under the mapping x  Ax .
1 1 

15. Let T: R3  R3 be the linear transformation determined by the matrix

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Cramer’s Rule, Volume, and Linear Transformations UAF

a 0 0
A   0 b 0  , where a, b, c are positive numbers. Let S be the unit ball, whose
 0 0 c 
bounding surface has the equation x12  x2 2  x3 2  1 .
x12 x2 2 x3 2
a. Show that T (S) is bounded by the ellipsoid with the equation   2  1.
a2 b2 c

b. Use the fact that the volume of the unit ball is 4π / 3 to determine the volume of the
region bounded by the ellipsoid in part (a).

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