Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
17.4EvaluatingDeterminants
Well,fromthefirsttwofactsalone,wecancomputethevalueofanydeterminant,andhencetheareaorvolumeorwhatever
ofanyparallelsidedfigure.
How?
Well,wecanaddmultiplesofrowstooneanothertogetridofoffdiagonalelements.Whenwearedone,wecandeducethe
valueofthedeterminantastheproductofthediagonalelements.
Actually,weneedonlymaketheelementsononesideofthediagonalinto0,andtaketheproductofthediagonalelements.
Gettingridoftheothersissometimesanicethingtodo,butwillnotaffectthediagonalelementsatall.
Let'sevaluatethedeterminantsofthefollowingarrays:
Ifwesubtract5timesthefirstrowfromthesecondinthefirstmatrixweget(0,3)forthesecondrow,sothedeterminantis
3.Inthesecondarraywesubtract timesthefirstrowfromthesecondandget(0,2)asnewsecondrow.Thedeterminant
ofthesecondmatrixistherefore2*2or4.
Thistellsus,bylinearitythatthedeterminantof
is3+4or1.Wecanverifythisbysubtracting ofthefirstrowfromthesecond.row,turningthatsecondrowinto ,
andtheproductofthediagonalelementsis1.
Thissameprocedureforevaluatingdeterminants(whichissometimescalled"rowreduction"andsometimescalled"Gaussian
elimination")canbeappliedtosquarearraysofanysize.Itiseasytodofor2by2arrays,butitisquiteeasytomakea
mistakeevenforsuch.Itisstillreasonablyeasyfor3by3'sbutmostpeoplewillmakesomesillymistakealongthewayand
getitwrongmostofthetime.EvenyouandIcanexpecttoget4by4determinantswrongmostofthetimewhendoingitby
handbythisapproach,becausethestepsaresostraightforwardandsoboring.Yourmindwillstrayalongthewayandyou
standanexcellentchanceofscrewingup.
Isthistheonlywaytoevaluateadeterminant?
No,thereareatleasttwootherways,oneofwhichisequallyboringandpronetoyourmakingerrors.Theotherismagical
andgreatfun,butsurprisinglyitisnevertaught,andpracticallynobodynotreadingthishaseverheardofit.
Thestandardapproachistowriteaformulafortheresultsofthemethodjustdescribed.Ifyoustartwithrows(a,b)and(c,d).
Toturnthecinto0yousubtract timesthefirstrowfromthesecond.Theresultingdiagonalelementsarethenaand
andtheirproductisadbc.Thisistheformulaforthedeterminantofageneraltwobytwoarray.
Forthreebythrees,youwillgetproductsofelementsonefromeachrowandonefromeachcolumn(asyoumustsinceeach
suchproductmustbelinearineachrowandcolumn).Therearesixsuchproducts,andtheyalloccurwithappropriatesigns.
Applyingthisformulaisalsoanerrorproneoperation,ifdonebyhand.
Exercise17.6Evaluatethefollowingdeterminantsbyanymethodabove.
Sowhatisthemagicalapproach?
UpPreviousNext