PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF MATRIXES AND DETERMINANTS

Example 1:
A company sells two types of toys: action and educational. Matrix A represents the sales (in
thousands of dollars) of the toy company in 2003, in three cities, and matrix B represents sales in the
same cities in 2005.
A=
[
Acción 400 350 150
Educativos 450 280 850 ]
and B= [
Acción 380 330 220
Educativos 460 320 750 ]
The company buys a competitor and in 2006 doubles the sales it had in 2005. What is the change in
sales between 2003 and 2006?

Solution.- Sales in 2006 are given by:

2 B=2
[ 380
460
330 220
320 750 ][
=
760 660 440
920 640 1500 ]
The change in sales between 2003 and 2006 is given by:

2 B− A=
[ 760
920
660 440
640 1500
−
][
400 350 150
450 280 850
=
][
360 310 290
470 360 650 ]
Sales in 2006 exceeded those in 2003 by $960,000 in action toys and $1,480,000 in educational toys.

Example 2.- A company manufactures three kinds of products A, B and C. Production expenses are
divided into the following three cost categories: materials cost, labor, and other expenses.

Table I presents an estimate of the cost of producing a single item of each class.

Table II presents an estimate of the number of articles of each class that could be produced in each
season of the year. The company wants to present at its shareholders meeting a simple table
showing the total costs per station for each of the three cost categories.

TABLE I – Production costs per item:

ARTICLES / CATEGORY TO b c

Cost of materials 0.20 0.40 0.25

Labour 0.40 0.50 0.35

Other expenses 0.20 0.30 0.25

TABLEII – Quantity of articles produced per station:

Summer Autumn Winter Spring
TO 5000 5500 5500 5000

b 3000 3600 3400 3200

c 6800 7200 7000 7000

Solution.- The data contained in each table can be represented using matrices. Let A be the matrix
that represents the production costs per item (Table I), and let B be the matrix that represents the
number of items of each class produced per season (Table II). Thus:

[ ] [ ]
0.20 0.40 0.25 5000 5500 5500 5000
A= 0.40 0.50 0.35 ; B= 3000 3600 3400 3200
0.20 0.30 0.25 6800 7200 7000 7000

A, is a 3 x 3 matrix and B, is a matrix of size 3 x 4, then AB is a 3 x 4 matrix:

[ ]
c 11 c12 c13 c 14
AB= c21 c22 c23 c 24
c31 c32 c33 c 34

c 11 =representa el costo de materiales durante la producción de verano .

c 11 =( 0.20 ) ( 5000 ) + ( 0.40 ) ( 3000 ) + ( 0.25 )( 6800 ) =3900
c 21=representa el costo de lamano de obra durante la producción de verano .
c 21=( 0.40 )( 5000 ) + ( 0.50 )( 3000 )+ ( 0.35 ) ( 6800 )=5880
c 31=representa el costo generado por otros gastos durante la producción de verano .
c 31=( 0.20 )( 5000 ) + ( 0.30 )( 3000 )+ ( 0.25 ) (6800 )=3600
Therefore, the first column of the product AB represents the production expenses during the summer.

Similarly, the second column of AB represents production expenses during the fall.

c 12=( 0.20 )( 5500 ) + ( 0.40 )( 3600 )+ ( 0.25 ) (7200 )=4340

c 22=( 0.20 )( 5500 ) + ( 0.40 )( 3600 )+ ( 0.25 ) (7200 )=6520
c 32=( 0.20 )( 5500 ) + ( 0.40 )( 3600 )+ ( 0.25 ) (7200 )=3980
The third column of AB represents the production expenses during the winter, and the fourth column
represents the production expenses during the spring.

[ ]
3900 4340 4210 4030
AB= 5880 6520 6350 6050
3600 3980 3870 3710

Therefore, the table that the company will present at its shareholders meeting is the following:

Summer Autumn Winter Spring Annual

Cost of materials 3900 4340 4210 4030 16480

Labour 5880 6520 6350 6050 24800

Other costs 3600 3980 3870 3710 15160

Total production cost 13380 14840 14430 13790 56440

Example 3.- In a small town, 30% of married men divorce each year and 20% of single men marry
each year. There are 8,000 married men and 2,000 single men. Assuming that the population of men
remains constant, how many married men and how many single men will there be in one year? How
many will there be after two years?

Solution. - The information can be organized in a matrix A where the first row contains the
percentage of married men after one year, and the second row contains the percentage of single men
after one year.

If 30% get divorced, then 70% stay married.

A=
[ 0.70
0.30
0.20
0.80 ]
Let x be a column vector whose first element is the total number of married men and its second
element is the total number of single men after one year.

x=
[ 8000
2000 ]

By making the product A x, we obtain:

Ax=
[ 0.70
0.30 ][ ] [
0.20 8000
0.80 2000
=
][ ]
( 0.70 ) ( 8000 ) + ( 0.20 ) ( 2000 ) 6000
=
( 0.30 ) ( 8000 ) + ( 0.80 ) ( 2000 ) 4000

After one year there will be 6,000 married men and 4,000 single men.

To know how many married men and how many single men there will be in two years, we must
compute A ( A x ).

2
A x= A ( Ax )=
[ 0.70
0.30 ][ ] [ ]
0.20 6000
0.80 4000
=
5000
5000

After two years, half of the men will be married and the other half single.

In general, the computation n A x will give the number of married men and the number of single men
after n years.

Example 4.- A car factory produces two models, A and B. Model A requires one hour of painting work
and ½ hour of polishing work. Model B requires 1 hour for each of the above processes. During each
hour that the assembly line is operating, 100 hours are available for painting work and 80 for polishing
work. How many units of each model can be produced each hour if all available hours must be used?

Solution. - The information can be organized in the following way:

Total hours
TO b
available
Paint 1 1 100
1
Polished 1 80
2
Be x 1 = number of units of model A that can be produced.
x 2 = number of units of model B that can be produced.
The problem can be represented by the following system of equations:

{
x 1 + x 2=100
1
x + x =80
2 1 2

The first equation expresses that the total number of hours used in paint in the production process
must be equal to 100.
The second equation expresses that the total number of hours used in the production process must
be equal to 80.
The problem can be represented matrixically by means of the equation:

[ ][ ] [
1 1
1
2
x1
1 x2
=
100
80 ]

[ ]
1 1
Where 1 1 It is called the coefficient matrix. Its first column is formed by the coefficients of x 1 in each
2
of the equations of the system, and its second column is formed by the coefficients of x 2 in each of the
equations of the system.

The vector []
x1
x2
It is called the column vector of unknowns .

The vector [ 100

80 ]
It is called the column vector of the constant terms.

To solve this matrix equation, we must multiply on the left on both sides of the equality by the inverse

[ ]
1 1
of the matrix of the coefficients 1 1
2

Using the result given for the inverse of a non-singular matrix of order 2, we obtain that the inverse of

[ ]
1 1
1
2
1
is[ 2 −2
−1 2 ]
We then have that:

][ ]
1 1
[ 2 −2
−1 2
1
2
1 [−12 −22 ][ xx ]
= 1

[ ][ ][
1 1
1 0
0 1
1
2
x
= 2 −2 1
1 −1 2 x 2 ][ ]
 [][ ]
x1
x2
=
40
60

By equality of matrices,

x 1=40
x 2=60
Therefore, 40 units of model A and 60 of model B can be produced every hour.