What is a Matrix?

Matrices are the main ingredient of a branch of mathematics called linear algebra
E.g. 2x + 3y = 10
-3x + 4y = 8.
To solve this, we can simply multiply the top by 3 and the bottom by 2 to eliminate x

What if there are not 2 variables, but 7 variables? Way messier to do:

x + y + 2z – w + a -2b – 3c = 8

We use matrix to simplify these into a series of rows and columns – brackets

An array of numbers arranged in rows and columns

Each row represents one of the equations

Each column represents all the different co-efficient

Easy for computing

Now we can do a number of things to them:

1) Add them, as long as the number of rows and columns are the same

2) We can also multiply, but this is a little more tricky. The number of columns in the first matrix
must be equal to the number of rows in the second
Then, we multiply the first number in the first row of the first matrix to the first number in the
first column in the second matrix + multiply the second number in the first row of the first
matrix to the second number in the second row in the second matrix
Adding all the number of the row x column gives the first number of the first row in the resulting
matrix.
For matrices, there is no such thing as division. You can add, subtract, and multiply matrices, but you cannot divide
them. There is a related concept, though, which is called "inversion"
How to write an augmented matrix for a linear system:

A system is a collection of two or more linear equations

The other form where we can write a linear system is through an augmented matrix

The x is in the first column, the y in the second column, and the constants in the last column
How to perform matrix row operations:

We call a matrix with 3 rows and 4 columns a 3x4 matrix – the row is always mentioned first.

There are only 3 row operations:

1. Switching
2. Multiplication
3. Adding

Switching:
The role of switching is to get a better organized matrix

Multiplication:

When we multiply 1 row with a certain number, we multiply each unit in that row with that number
Addition:

We usually use addition when we can change a particular number to 0

When we add two rows, we can choose which row to replace
We can choose to either replace row 2 or row 3 here. We choose the one which will give us the simpler
matrix

Combining operations:

Common one: multiply by a number and add to another number to form a new one:
Because we combined operations, we can keep the first row the same
Math operations with matrix

Two matrices are equal if all the numbers in the 2 matrix are equal

Are these the same matrices? No

Addition:

You can add the same number to all the units in the matrix
Subtraction

Multiplication is a bit trickier. It is a combination of multiplication and addition:

Condition: the number of columns in M1 should be equal to the number of rows in M2

Can we multiply this? No

With matrices, which matrix comes first matters

To multiply a matrix by another matrix we need to do the "dot product" of rows and columns.

To get the first number of the first row in the resulting matrix:

1(0) + 2(2) = 4

Next, 1(1) + 2(3) = 7

Next, 3(0) + 5(2) = 10 for the first number in the second row of the 1st column

Lastly:
Example:

To save work, we check first to see if it is possible to multiply them.

We have (3×3) × (3×3) and since the number of columns in A is the same as the number of rows in B (the
middle two numbers are both 3 in this case), we can go ahead and multiply these matrices. Our result will
be a (3×3) matrix.

The first step is to write the 2 matrices side by side, as follows:

We multiply the individual elements along the first row of matrix A with the corresponding elements down
the first column of matrix B, and add the results. This gives us the number we need to put in the first row,
first column position in the answer matrix.
Following that, we multiply the elements along the first row of matrix A with the corresponding elements
down the second column of matrix B then add the results. This gives us the answer we'll need to put in
the first row, second column of the answer matrix.
Determinant of a matrix:

One of the simplest and most unique operation you can do with a matrix is called the determinant.

First, what is a square matrix? Same number of columns and rows

Determinant can only be calculated on square matrices

It is just one value. It is more difficult for bigger matrices

It asks for determinants if it is absolute value bars

To find determinant – multiply the diagonals and subtract the products

Multiply the first diagonal

Subtract the second diagonal

Result
Another example:

So,

For 3x3 matrices:

Start with the first number, then multiply by the 2x2 matrix after you cover up the row and column of that
number
We get

Next, subtract the second value

And add the third value

We get
Result
Inverse Matrix

To find the inverse matrix, we must first know about the identity matrix

Identity matrices are all square. They have the same number of rows and columns. Think of them as the
number ‘1’ in the matrix world

Matrices that are multiplied by their matching sized identity matrix produce the original matrix. We label
the Identity matrix with a capital I
An inverse matrix meets the following criteria:

If we multiply the matrix by its inverse, we get the identity matrix

E.g., if we multiply a number with its inverse, we get 1

We can’t divide in the matrix world. We use inverse instead. Also, we can’t always find an inverse matrix.

Imagine we can't divide by numbers and someone asks "How do I share 10 apples with 2 people?"

But we can take the reciprocal of 2 (which is 0.5), so we answer:

10 × 0.5 = 5

They get 5 apples each.

Say we want to find matrix X, and we know matrix A and B:

XA = B

It would be nice to divide both sides by A (to get X=B/A), but remember we can't divide.

But what if we multiply both sides by A-1 ?

XAA-1 = BA-1

And we know that AA-1 = I, so:

XI = BA-1
We can remove I (for the same reason we can remove "1" from 1x = ab for numbers):

X = BA-1

And we have our answer (assuming we can calculate A-1)

For 2x2 matrix:
To find the inverse of a matrix, we will first write the matrix and the identity matrix next to each other.

Turning the left side into the identity matrix gives the inverse on the right
Example:

Change all the numbers not on the diagonals to 0, and the numbers on the diagonal to 1

First, add second row to the third row to get a new third row:
You have a new third row

Now multiply the new third row by -3 and add it to the top row to get a new top row

Result:
Lastly divide the second row by 2. We get:

Result:

This is my inverse matrix

Solving linear systems in two variables using determinants

Remember:

Suppose the linear system is as follows:

A pet shop owner says he has 50 cats and dogs. If he subtracts the number of cats from dogs, he gets
30. How many dogs and cats does he have?

Cramers rule tells us how we can solve this using determinants

First you create your coefficient matrix, which includes just the coefficients on the left side of the matrix.
We will call the determinant of this matrix D
Then for each variable, you take your coefficient matrix and substitute the constant numbers which are
the numbers on the right side of the equation

E.g. For the c variable, we substitute in the first column

Same is done for d. We then find the determinant of these matrices, called Dc and Dd

Solution of c = Dc / D

Solution of d = Dd / D

D=2
Dc = 20

Dd = 80

Answer:
Solving linear systems in three variables using determinants

First, make the matrix

The solution is:

D = 15
Dx = 15

Dy = 30

Dz = 45
Answer: