Exercise: Calculate the determinant of this matrix:
First line: 1 2 3
Second line:
Third line: 0 4
Solution: First we create a 3x3 matrix
3 ENTER ▀ MATRIX NEW
We have x: [ 3x3 Matrix] in the display
Now we press EDIT and we have 1:1=0.0000 Let's enter all elements. (First line)
1 → 2 → 3
Let's go, for example to (2,1), to enter the second line. ↓ ← ←
2 +/- → 3 →5 ↓ ← ←
0 → 4 →1 +/-
Then we press exit to stop editing. Now to calculate the determinant is just press DET which gives
One cannot create any size of matrix because we are limited by the available memory of the calculator. In my palm tungsten E using Free42 I can create a matrix of 90x90 and in my PC the Free42 program can give me a 5000x5000 or bigger while in the real
The EDIT function is not useful only to enter a matrix but also to see all the elements of matrix resultant from a calculation. Talking about matrix calculation, the
How can one use matrices to solve linear systems? The
But it would be more profitable to remember a little of linear algebra. If you have nxn linear system you can always write it as the matrix equation
A X = B
where A is nxn matrix called the coefficient matrix, B is nx1 column matrix called independent terms matrix and X is also a nx1 column matrix which contains the unknown variables.
By multiplying this equation by the inverse matrix of A we have
X = A−1 B.
So if you are able to perform the inverse of matrix and able to multiply matrices you can solve a linear system without needing to learn another calculator's function.
What about complex matrices? You cannot enter complex numbers in a normal matrix. You have to create a complex matrix first. The procedure to do this is like to create a complex number. First