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BASIC ARITHMETIC WITH MATRICES

Jump right to the exercises!

Before doing this section, you may want to review basic properties of matrices in Introduction to Matrices.

Whenever you get a new mathematical object (like matrices), it's important to develop tools to work with the new object.
In this exercise, you'll learn how to do basic arithmetic operations with matrices:
adding, subtracting, and multiplying by a constant.

Adding and Subtracting Matrices

Matrices can only be added or subtracted when they have the same size.
In this situation, you just add/subtract the corresponding entries.
For example,
[- 210 3]  +   [5-46 -7]  =   [-2+5    1+(-4) 0+6 3+(-7)]   =   [3-36 -4]

[- 210 3]  -   [5-46 -7]  =   [-2-5    1-(-4) 0-6 3-(-7)]   =   [-75-6 10]

Precisely, we have:

ADDING AND SUBTRACTING MATRICES

Suppose matrices  A  and  B  have the same size.

Then, the sum  S=A+B   is defined by
sij = aij + bij .

The difference  D=A-B   is defined by
dij = aij - bij .

In particular, matrices with different sizes cannot be added or subtracted.

Multiplying a Matrix by a Constant

It is equally easy to multiply a matrix by a constant; each entry gets multiplied by the constant.
For example,
7 [- 210 3]  =   [7(-2)   7(1) 7(0) 7(3)]   =   [-14 7 0 21]
Precisely, we have:

MULTIPLYING A MATRIX BY A CONSTANT

Let  M  be a matrix, with members  mij .
Let  k  be a real number.

Then, the new matrix  kM  has the same size as  M ,
and the member in row  i  and column  j  is  kmij .

Note: The real number multiplier is often called a constant or a scalar.

When working with matrices, it's important to distinguish between the real number  0  and a zero matrix.
To help with this distinction, we will define  0m ×n  (zero, with a subscript of  m×n )
to mean the zero matrix of size  m×n .
You can read  0m ×n  aloud as the  m×n  zero matrix.

Thus, if  A  is a  2×3  matrix, then  A-A= 02 ×3 .

Or, if  A  is a  p×q  matrix, then  0A= 0p ×q .

Be aware that many advanced textbooks write simple things like  A-A=0 ,
knowing that the audience has enough mathematical maturity to realize that the zero is really the zero matrix with the same size as  A .
However, in this exercise, we will be careful to distinguish between the real number zero, and a zero matrix.

EXAMPLE

Let   A  =   [2-1 03] ,    B  =   [-3-5 10] ,   and   C  =   [011 2-10] .
Then,
A+2B  =   [2-1 03]  +   2  [-3-5 10]   =   [2-1 03]  +   [-6-10 20]   =   [-4-11 23]

 A+C  is not defined.

On this exercise, you will not key in your answer.
However, you can check to see if your answer is correct.

Click on "new problem" to get started!
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Algebra II Table of Contents

One Mathematical Cat, Please! A First Course in Algebra
© 2007  Carol J.V. Fisher
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