Chapter 9
MATRIX OPERATIONS AND CALCULATIONS
Matrices are orderly collections of numbers arranged in a grid of rows and
columns. This chapter introduces matrix notation, common matrix terms,
matrix operations (such as addition and multiplication), and determinants.
The chapter concludes with Cramer’s Rule, a set of matrix formulas used to
calculate the solution to a system of equations.
Matrices are pretty useful, even though they’re just big laundry
lists of numbers. This chapter introduces you to matrices—it tells you
what the pieces are called, shows you how to combine them, explains
what the heck a determinant is, and demonstrates how to calculate
determinants the easy way and the hard way.
Oddly, the chapter ends with Cramer’s Rule, a way to solve the systems
of equations that were covered in Problems 8.1–8.28. Even though it’s
nothing more than a new way to do something you already know how
to do (if you read Chapter 8, that is), it’s still interesting that clumps of
numbers can produce the same answer that substitution and variable
elimination did.
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