Determinants

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030

Tecnológico de Monterrey
• Science Department •

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Objectives

Review the definition of determinant 2 × 2.

Mnemonics
Geometric meaning.
Determinant 3 × 3
A formal definition of Determinant.
Concepts: minor and cofactor.
Computing a determinant by a cofactor expansion across any
row or any column.

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Determinant
The determinant of a square matrix A is a real number associated
with A. In mathematical notation, the determinant of A is
denoted by det(A) or by |A|. The determinant of a matrix is a
number that measures, among other things, whether a matrix is
invertible or not. Our most important result is |A| =
6 0 if and only
if A is an invertible matrix. In our approach, we will first see how
the determinant of square matrices 2 × 2, and 3 × 3, then we will
move on to the general case. We are sorry for the abuse of the
bars to symbolize the determinant of a matrix because may be
confused with the absolute value of a number: this notation is
generally accepted in almost any book about determinants. We
will do our best to avoid confusion by writing the matrices in bold
and capital letters to differentiate them from the scalars, which is
the apply the absolute value:
|A| = determinant of matriz A
|c| = absolute value of the real number c.

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Determinat of a 2 × 2 matrix

Definition
Let A be a 2 × 2 matrix:
 
a11 a12
A=
a21 a22

The determinant A is defined by:

|A| = det(A) = a11 · a22 − a12 · a21

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Example 1
Find the determinant of matrices
   
1 2 −3 2
A1 = , A2 =
3 4 −1 8

Solution
Following the definition, we obtain

det(A1 ) = (1)(4) − (2)(3) = 4 − 6 = −2

det(A2 ) = (−3)(8) − (2)(−1) = −24 + 2 = −22 

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Determinant 2 × 2: Mnemonic rule

A way to memorize the calculation of the determinant of a matrix

2 × 2 is the following: write the elements of the matrix and do the
products diagonally, so that those ranging from left-top to
right-bottom are multiplied by +1 while products from left-bottom
to right-top go multiplied by −1:
 
 a11 a12 
|A| = 
  = +a11 · a22 −a21 · a12
a21 a22 

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Geometric interpretation of determinants 2 × 2
If  
a11 a12
A=
a21 a22
is a 2 × 2 matrix, the area of the parallelogram determined by the
columns of A is |det(A)|. The vertices of the parallelogram are:
P(0, 0), Q(a11 , a21 ), R(a12 , a22 ), and S(a11 + a12 , a21 + a22 )
< a11 + a12 , a21 + a22 >

< a21 , a22 >

< a11 , a12 >

< 0, 0 >

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

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

v1 v1 + v2

v2
0

Solution This parallelogram is defined by vectors v1 =< 3, 0 > y

v2 =< 1, 2 >. Then, the area is absolute value of:
 
 3 0 
det(A) =    = (3)(2) − (0)(1) = 6
1 2 

Which matches the base-times-height result: 3 × 2 = 6 

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Example 3
Calculate the area of the parallelogram determined by the points
P(1, 2), Q(2, 3), R(5, 5) and S(6, 6).
Solution First, translate the parallelogram to one having the origin
as a vertex. To do this, we choose any of its vertices and subtract
it from its four corners. Let’s say P(1, 2) is chosen. The new
parallelogram has the same area, and its vertices are:

P 0 (0, 0) = P(1, 2) − P(1, 2)

Q 0 (1, 1) = Q(2, 3) − P(1, 2)
R 0 (4, 3) = R(5, 5) − P(1, 2)
S 0 (5, 4) = S(6, 6) − P(1, 2)

Observe it is a parallelogram because S 0 (5, 4) = Q 0 (1, 1) + R 0 (4, 3).

Therefore, the original parallelogram area is:
 
 1 1 
A=   = |3 − 4| = |−1| = 1 
4 3 

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Determinant of a 3 × 3 matrix

Definition
The determinant of a 3 × 3 matrix A is calculated using the
formula:
 
 a11 a12 a13 
 
|A| =  a21 a22 a23 
 a31 a32 a33 
= + a11 a22 a33 + a12 a23 a31 + a13 a21 a32
− a13 a22 a31 − a11 a23 a32 − a12 a21 a33

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Rule of Sarrus for a 3 × 3 determinant

The Rule of Sarrus for calculating the determinant of a 3 × 3

matrix consists of copying the first and second columns of the
matrix and placing them immediately to the right of the matrix.
Subsequently, calculate the diagonal products of three elements as
shown in the figure:
 
 a11 a12 a13  a11 a12
 
|A| =  a21 a22 a23  a21 a22
 a31 a32 a33  a31 a32

The product of left-up elements with the right-bottom elements

(in green) are multiplied by +1, while the product of left-down
elements with the right-up elements (in red) are multiplied by −1;
all results are added.

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Example 4
Compute the determinant of
 
1 2 −1
A= 3 4 0 
0 1 −4

Solution
Using the Rule of Sarrus:
   
1 2 −1   1 2 −1  1 2


|A| = 
3 4 0  =  3 4 0  3 4
0 1 −4
   0 1 −4  0 1
= + (1)(4)(−4) + (2)(0)(0) + (−1)(3)(1)
− (−1)(4)(0) − (1)(0)(1) − (2)(3)(−4)
= +(−16) + 0 + (−3) − 0 − 0 − (−24) = 5 

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

(i, j)-minor

Definition
Let A be a square matrix, the minor of position (i, j), or the
(i, j)-minor, of matrix A, denoted by Mij , is the determinant of the
matrix that is obtained by deleting ith row and jth column of A.

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Example 5
Compute M3,2 for:
 
1 2 −1
A= 3 4 0 
0 1 −4

Solution
From A, we delete third row and second column and compute the
determinant of the resulting matrix:
 
1 2 −1 
 1 −1 

A= 3 4
 0 → M3,2 = 
   = (1)(0) − (−1)(3) = 3
3 0 
0 1 −4

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

(i, j)-cofactor

Definition
Let A be a matrix, the (i, j)-cofactor of A is define as:

Ci,j = (−1)i+j Mij

That is, it is the (i, j)-minor of A multiplied by +1 or by −1. This

it would depend if the sum of the row and the column is even or
odd.

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Example 6
Compute C3,2 for the matrix:
 
1 2 −1
A= 3 4 0 
0 1 −4

Solution
First, compute M3,2 :
 
1 2 −1  
 1 −1 
A= 3 4
 0 , M3,2 = 
   = (1)(0) − (−1)(3) = 3
3 0 
0 1 −4

Therefore, C3,2 = (−1)3+2 · M32 = (−1)5 (3) = −3 

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Formal definition of the determinant
The Leibniz formula for the determinant of a n × n matrix A is:

X n
Y
det(A) = sgn(σ) ai,σi
σ∈Pn i=1

where the sum is calculated over all permutations σ of the set

{1, 2, . . . , n}. The position of element i after the permutation σ is
denoted as σi . The set of all permutations is Pn . For each σ, the
sign of the permutation σ, denoted by sgn(σ), is +1 if the
permutation Q is even and -1 if it is odd. In any of the n! elements,
the term ni=1 ai,σi denotes the product of the inputs at position
(i, σi ), where i = 1, 2, . . . , n:

a1,σ1 · a2,σ2 · · · an,σn

Leibniz formula is not practical: It is not commonly used to

calculate the determinant of the matrix that has more than three
rows.
Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants
Cofactor expansion
A fundamental theorem about determinants is that they can be
calculated using cofactor expansion across any row or any
column. Theorem
Let A be a n×n matrix, |A| can be computed by a cofactor
expansion across any row or down any column.
 
a11 a12 · · · a1n
 a21 a22 · · · a2n 
A= .
 
.. .. .. 
 .. . . . 
an1 an2 · · · ann

The expansion across the ith row using the cofactors is

|A| = ai1 Ci1 + ai2 Ci2 + · · · + ain Cin

The cofactor expansion down the jth column is

|A| = a1j C1j + a2j C2j + · · · + anj Cnj

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants
Example 7
Use a cofactor expansion across the second row to compute |A|,
where  
1 2 −1
A= 3 4 0 
0 1 −4
Solution
We compute all minors of second row:
     
 2 −1   1 −1   1 2 
M2,1 = 
  = −7, M 2,2 =   = −4, M 2,3 =  =1
1 −4   0 −4   0 1 

Hence,

|A| = a21 C21 + ai2 C22 + a23 C23

= (3)(−1)2+1 (−7) + (4)(−1)2+2 (−4) + (0)(−1)2+3 (1)
= 5

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Example 8
Use a cofactor expansion across the column one to compute |A|,
where  
1 2 −1
A= 3 4 0 
0 1 −4
Solution
We compute all minors of column one:
     
 4 0   2 −1   2 −1 
M1,1 =  = −16, M2,1 =  = −7, M3,1 =  =4
1 −4  1 −4  4 0 

Hence
|A| = a11 C11 + a21 C21 + a31 C31
= (1)(−1)1+1 (−16) + (3)(−1)2+1 (−7) + (0)(−1)3+1 (4)
= 5

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Suggestion for computing determinants

The previous theorem is useful to compute the determinant of a

matrix that contains many zeros. For example, if a row is mostly
zeros, then the cofactor expansion across that row has many terms
that are zero, and the cofactors in those terms need not be
calculated. The same approach works with a column that contains
many zeros.

Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants

Example 9
Find the values of λ where the determinant of matrix A is zero:
 
2−λ 0 0
A= 1 3−λ 0 
0 1 1−λ

Solution
Let’s first calculate the determinant of the matrix. Because the
last column has many zeroes, we use a cofactor expansion across
the third column:
|A| = a13 · C13 + a23 · C23 + a33 · C33 = a33 · C33
 2−λ 0 
= (1 − λ) · (−1)3+3 
1 3−λ 
= (2 − λ) (3 − λ) (1 − λ)

Therefore, the only values of λ to do |A| = 0 are: λ1 = 2, λ2 = 3

and λ3 = 1 
Matrix Modeling, Ma1030 Determinants