Determinant of a Matrix

A matrix is an array of many numbers. For a square matrix, i.e., a matrix with the same number of rows and columns, one can capture important information about the matrix in a just single number, called the determinant. The determinant is useful for solving linear equations, capturing how linear transformation change area or volume, and changing variables in integrals.

The determinant can be viewed as a function whose input is a square matrix and whose output is a number. Let's not focus on the calcualtions because computers will do them for you (if you want, you can find formulas on the picture below).

Now let's use NumPy Python library to calculate determinant.

You can check the result using the formulas above.

In order to fully understand usages of determinants we need to look deeper into different types of matrices. That's what we will do in near future.