MATH-224

LINEAR ALGEBRA AND FURTHER CALCULUS

Lecture 1: Matrix Definition, Notation, Order and Types

Course Lecturers: Dr. M. Maliyoni & Mr. B. Malipa

Applied Studies Department, MUST

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Lesson Outcomes

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

Define a matrix.
Use matrix notation to represent matrices.
Determine the order (or size) of a matrix.
Classify matrices according to type.

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Introduction

The first topic of this course is Matrices and one may wonder why we
are studying them.
Our interest is in knowing what Matrices are, their types, and how
they can be used to solve real life problems.
For your information, Matrices are a powerful computation tool in
modern Mathematics having a wide range of applications in fields
such as Chemical Engineering, Population and Computational
Biology, Ecology, Economics, Demography, etc.
Matrices can also be used as structures within which numeric data
can be stored and manipulated.
In this lesson, you will learn about the following: definition of a
matrix, matrix notation, order (or size) of a matrix, and types of
matrices.
Please ensure that you have a scientific calculator which will be used
at some point in this course.
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Matrices

Definition of a matrix
A matrix is a rectangular array of numbers, symbols, or expressions
arranged in rows and columns and enclosed by a pair of brackets.

Symbolically, a matrix is represented by the figure below:

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Matrix Notation

It is customary to represent matrices in any one of the following three

ways.
1. A matrix can be denoted by an uppercase letter such as A, B, C , ... and
its entries by lowercase letters.
2. A matrix can be denoted by a representative element enclosed in round
brackets () or square brackets [], such as [aij ], [bij ], (cij ), · · · . Note that
aij is an entry of matrix A in which the first suffix i indicates the row
and the second one j the column in which the entry appears.

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3. A matrix can be denoted by a rectangular array of numbers
 
a11 a12 a13 · · · a1n
 a21 a22 a23 · · · a2n 
 
 a31 a32 a33 · · · a3n 
 
 .. .. .. . . .. 
 . . . . . 
am1 am2 am3 · · · amn

Remark
An aij th element in a matrix simply denotes an element positioned at the
intersection of ith row and jth column.

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Example
 
1 2 3
Let N = 0 −5 8  . Find (i) n31 (ii) n33 (iii) n12 .
6 4 −10

Solution
(i) n31 is an entry positioned at the intersection of row 3 and column 1
in matrix N. Therefore, n31 = 6.
(ii) n33 = −10.
(iii) n12 = 2.

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Order (or Size) of a Matrix

Definition
A matrix containing m rows and n columns is said to be of the order or
size m × n (Note that you count the number of rows first and the number
of columns second).

Example
 
1 2 3
1. Matrix M = is of order 2 × 3 because it has 2 rows and 3
4 5 6
columns.  
a b
2. The size of matrix G = is 2 × 2 (2 rows and two columns).
c d
 
x + y −3
3. A =  y 9  has 3 rows and 2 columns. Therefore, matrix A is
−14 x
of order 3 × 2.
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Types of Matrices
There are so many types of matrices but in this lesson only 9 types will be
considered.

1. Column Matrix
This is a matrix with m rows and 1 column and is of order m × 1.

Example
 
  w
2 x 
−4 and   are column matrices of order 3 × 1 and 4 × 1,
y 
1
z
respectively.

Remark
For a column matrix, there can be as many rows (m rows) as we wish but
only one column.
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 2. Row Matrix
This is a matrix with 1 row and n columns. The size of this matrix is
1 × n.

Example



M = −3 5 and G = a b c d e are row matrices of order 1 × 2
and 1 × 5, respectively.

3. Equal Matrices
Two matrices, A and B, are said to be equal if they are of the same
order and the corresponding elements are equal (i.e. they have the
same element at same position in the two matrices).
In this case we write A = B.
Note that both conditions must hold for two matrices to be equal. If
one or both conditions do not hold, then the matrices are not equal,
i.e. A 6= B.
Conversely, if two matrices are equal, then the matrices have the same
order and their corresponding elements are equal.
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Example
       
−1 2 7 8 −1 2 k 8
Let A = ,B= ,C= , and D = .
3 5 3 4 3 5 3 4
(i) Matrices A and C are of order 2 × 2 and their corresponding elements
are equal. Therefore, matrices A and C are equal, that is, A = C .
(ii) Matrices B and D are also of order 2 × 2. However, their
corresponding elements are not equal because the elements
positioned at b11 = 7 in matrix B and d11 = k in matrix D are not
the same. Therefore, matrices B and D are not equal, i.e. B 6= D.
(iii) These two matrices, B and D, can be equal (B = D) if and only if
k = 7 (since this conditions ensures that the corresponding elements
of B and D are equal).

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 4. Null or Zero Matrix
This is a matrix where all elements are zero. A zero matrix is denoted
by O. If necessary a subscript can be added to indicate the order of
the matrix.

Example
 
  0 0 0
0 0  
O2×2 = , O1×4 = 0 0 0 0 , O3×3 = 0 0 0, and
0 0
0 0 0
 
0
O3×1 = 0 are all zero matrices.
0

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 5. Square Matrix
This is a matrix in which the number of rows is equal to the number
of columns.

Example
 
2 6
(i) A = is a 2 × 2 square matrix.
4 8
 
a d g
(ii) B = b e h  is a 3 × 3 square matrix.
c f i

Note
i. The order of a square matrix is n where n is the number of rows and
columns. Thus, the order n = 3 implies a 3 × 3 square matrix.
ii. A square matrix has two diagonals. The diagonal extending from top left to
bottom right of a matrix is more important than the diagonal extending
from top right to bottom left.

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iii. This diagonal is called the principal or leading diagonal and its
elements are called diagonal elements.
iv. In a square matrix A of order n, the diagonal elements are:
a11 , a22 , a33 , · · · , ann .
v. The sum of the diagonal elements in this matrix is called the trace of
A, that is,
n
X
Trace A = Tr(A) = aii = a11 + a22 + a33 + · · · + ann
i=1

Example
 
−1 5 0
Let A =  8 5 −4. Find Trace A.
1 6 3

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Solution
Since A is a 3 × 3 square matrix, then n = 3. Therefore,
n
X 3
X
Trace A = aii = aii
i=1 i=1
= a11 + a22 + a33

But a11 = −1, a22 = 5, and a33 = 3. Therefore,

Trace A = −1 + 5 + 3 = 7

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 6. Diagonal Matrix
This is a square matrix in which all the elements other than the
leading diagonal elements are all zeros.

Remark
For a diagonal matrix, there must exist at least one non-zero element in its
diagonal.

Example
 
2 0
(i) A = is a 2 × 2 diagonal matrix.
0 8
 
x 0 0
(ii) B = 0 y 0 is a 3 × 3 diagonal matrix.
0 0 z

Note that diagonal matrix B may also be written as

B = diag(x, y , z).
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In general, a diagonal matrix of order n can be written as
 
a11 0 0 ··· 0
 0 a22
 0 ··· 0 

diag(a11 , a22 , · · · , ann ) =  0
 0 a33 · · · 0 .

 .. .. .. .. .. 
 . . . . . 
0 0 0 ··· ann
Note that the number of elements in diag determines the order of the
diagonal matrix. For example, diag(1, 2, 3, 4, 5) is a diagonal matrix of
order 5 × 5 whose diagonal elements are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Example
 
−1 0
(i) H = diag(−1, 3) = is a 2 × 2 diagonal matrix.
0 3
 
2 0 0 0
0 5 0 0
(ii) K = diag(2, 5, 8, −4) = 
0 0
 is a 4 × 4 diagonal matrix.
8 0
0 0 0 −4
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 7. Scalar Matrix
This is a diagonal matrix in which all the diagonal elements are equal.

Example
 
4 0
(i) R = is a 2 × 2 scalar matrix since all the leading diagonal elements
0 4
are equal.
 
−5 0 0
(ii) S =  0 −5 0  is a 3 × 3 scalar matrix.
0 0 −5
 
m 0 0 0
0 m 0 0
(iii) T =  0 0 m 0  is a 4 × 4 scalar matrix.


0 0 0 m

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 8. Identity or Unit Matrix
This is a scalar matrix in which all the leading diagonal elements are
1.

Remark
An identity matrix of order n is written as In .

Example
 
1 0
(i) I2 = is a 2 × 2 (n = 2) identity matrix since all the leading diagonal
0 1
elements are 1.
 
1 0 0
(ii) I3 = 0 1 0 is a 3 × 3 identity matrix.
0 0 1
 
1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
(iii) I4 =   is a 4 × 4 identity matrix.
0 0 1 0
0 0 0 1

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 9. Triangular Matrix
This is a square matrix whose elements either above or below the
leading diagonal are all zeros.
Types of Triangular Matrix
(a) Upper Triangular Matrix
This is a square matrix in which all entries below the main diagonal are
zero (only nonzero entries are found above the main diagonal - in the
upper triangle). An upper triangular matrix is typically denoted by U.

Example

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(b) Lower Triangular Matrix
This is a square matrix in which all entries above the main diagonal are
zero(only nonzero entries are found below the main diagonal - in the
lower triangle). A lower triangular matrix is typically denoted by L.

Example

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Example

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Conclusion

(a) Matrices are indeed a very powerful computation tool and are applied
in many fields other than Mathematics only.
(b) In this lesson, a number of concepts have been covered and these are:
Definition of a matrix.
Matrix notation.
Order of a matrix.
Types of matrices.
(c) For further reading, please refer to MATH-224 Module Study Guide,
Pages 1-5.
(d) In case you have questions about this lesson, please do not hesitate to
ask us using the forum on this platform and we will be glad to address
them.
(e) It is our hope that you found this lesson interesting and you cannot
wait for the next lesson.
(f) We wish you the best of luck. Stay safe. COVID-19 is real!
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 END OF LECTURE 1

THANK YOU!

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