Operations with Matrices: Introduction to Determinant, Solving Systems, THE INVERSE OF A SQUARE MATRIX, THE MATRIX EQUATION

6.2 - Operations with Matrices

Two matrices are equal if and only if

A scalar is a number, not a matrix.

Zero Matrix

Matrix Multiplication

Am×n × Bn×p = Cm×p

Matrix multiplication is not commutative

There is no matrix division.

Identity matrix of size 3

Properties of Matrices

Properties of Real Numbers that aren't Properties of Matrices

Commutativity of Multiplication

Evaluating a Function using a Matrix

Consider the function f(x) = x2 - 4x + 3 and the matrix A

The initial attempt to evaluate the f(A) would be to replace every x with an A to get f(A) = A2 - 4A + 3. There is one slight problem, however. The constant 3 is not a matrix, and you can't add matrices and scalars together. So, we multiply the constant by the Identity matrix.

f(A) = A2 - 4A + 3I.

Evaluate each term in the function and then add them together.

Factoring Expressions

Some examples of factoring are shown. Simplify and solve like normal, but remember that matrix multiplication is not commutative and there is no matrix division.

2X + 3X = 5X

AX + BX = (A+B)X

XA + XB = X(A+B)

AX + 5X = (A+5I)X

AX+XB does not factor

A system of linear equations can be written as AX=B where A is the coefficient matrix, X is a column vector containing the variables, and B is the right hand side. We'll learn how to solve this equation in the next section.

If there are more than one system of linear equations with the same coefficient matrix, then you can expand the B matrix to have more than one column. Put each right hand side into its own column.