2. Large Determinants

by M. Bourne

Evaluating large determinants can be tedious and we will use computers wherever possible (see box at right). But if you have to do large determinants on paper, here's how.

Computers and Determinants

Now that we have powerful tools like LiveMath, MathCad, Scientific Notebook, Mathematica, Matlab, Maple, etc, we should concentrate on understanding the uses of mathematics and not so much on its mechanics.

Students spend hours multiplying out large determinants and a lot of the time is spent figuring out where errors were made. And for what? That time is better spent using a computer (or calculator) to solve it directly for us and using the remaining time learning how to apply it.

Mostly, we will use LiveMath or other Computer Algebra Systems to find large determinants.

Expanding 4×4 Determinants

We will use the same approach that we saw in the last section, where we expanded a 3×3 determinant.

Going down the first column, we find the cofactors of each element and then multiply each element by its cofactor.

4x4

expand 4x4

Notice the pattern of

First term: positive
Second term: negative
Third term: positive
Fourth term: negative

To get the final answer, we expand out these 3×3 determinants, multiply then simplify.

Example

Expand the 4×4 determinant:

4x4 example

Answer



As mentioned above, we will use computer to find the value of large determinants.

Here is how we use LiveMath to find the value of a 4×4 determinant.

LIVEMath



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