Det
Det[m]
gives the determinant of the square matrix m.
Examples
open allclose allScope (13)
Basic Uses (8)
Find the determinant of a MachinePrecision matrix:
Determinant of a complex matrix:
Determinant of an exact matrix:
Determinant of an arbitrary-precision matrix:
Determinant of a symbolic matrix:
The determinant of a large numerical matrix is computed efficiently:
Note that the result may not be a machine number:
Determinant of a matrix with finite field elements:
Determinant of a CenteredInterval matrix:
Special Matrices (5)
Determinants of sparse matrices:
Determinants of structured matrices:
IdentityMatrix always has unit determinant:
Determinant of HilbertMatrix:
Compute the determinant of a matrix of univariate polynomials of degree :
Options (1)
Modulus (1)
Compute a determinant using arithmetic modulo 47:
This is faster than computing Mod[Det[m],47]:
Applications (19)
Area and Volumes (6)
Use Det to find area of a parallelogram spanned by and :
Visualize the parallelogram when one vertex is at the origin:
The area is given by the absolute value of the determinant:
Compare with the result given by Area:
Use Det to find the volume of a parallelepiped spanned by , and :
Visualize the parallelepiped when one vertex is at the origin:
The volume is given by the absolute value of the determinant:
Compare with a direct computation using Volume:
Use Det to find hypervolume of a hyper-parallelepiped spanned by the following vectors:
The hypervolume is given by the absolute value of the determinant:
Compare with the result given by RegionMeasure:
The determinant itself is negative, so the are not right-handed:
Simply reorder any two vectors, say the middle two, to produce a right-handed set:
Find the area of the image of the unit disk under the linear transformation associated to the matrix :
The area of the image is given by :
Compare with a direct computation:
Find the volume factor in the change of variables formula between Cartesian and polar coordinates. The mapping from polar to Cartesian coordinates is given by:
Compute the Jacobian of the mapping using Grad:
By the change of variables theorem, the volume is the determinant of the Jacobian:
Compare with the result given by CoordinateChartData:
The same procedure will work with any coordinate system, for example, spherical coordinates:
Use the change of variables theorem to compute , where is the following region:
First, define hyperbolic coordinates as follows:
The region clearly corresponds to and . By the change of variables formula, . The gradient is given by:
The determinant of the gradient is twice the function whose integral is :
Orientation and Rotations (5)
Determine whether the following basis for is right-handed:
The determinant of the matrix formed by the basis is negative, so it is not right-handed:
Determine if linear transformation corresponding to is orientation-preserving or orientation-reversing:
As , the mapping is orientation-preserving:
Show that the following matrix is not a rotation matrix:
All rotation matrices have unit determinant; since , it cannot be a rotation matrix:
Show that the matrix is orthogonal and determine if it is a rotation matrix or includes a reflection:
Up to the input precision, , which shows that is orthogonal:
All orthogonal matrices have , but rotations have ; as , includes a reflection:
The generalization of a rotation matrix to complex vector spaces is a special unitary matrix that is unitary and has unit determinant. Show that the following matrix is a special unitary matrix:
The matrix is unitary because :
It also has unit determinant, so it is in fact an element of the special unitary group :
Linear and Abstract Algebra (8)
Determine the values of the parameter for which the system , has a unique solution and describe that solution. First, form the coefficient matrix and constant vector :
The solutions will be unique as :
Solving over the reals gives three open intervals separated at and :
Since the matrix is invertible for these values of , the solution is simply :
Verify the solution in the original system of equations:
Use Cramer's rule to solve the system of equations , , . First, form the coefficient matrix and constant vector :
Form the three matrices where replaces the corresponding columns of :
The entries of the solution are given by :
Write a function implementing Cramer's rule for solving a linear system m.x=b:
Use the function to solve a system for particular values of m and b:
For numerical systems, LinearSolve is much faster and more accurate:
Determine if the matrix has a nontrivial kernel (null space):
Since the determinant is nonzero, the kernel is trivial:
Confirm the result using NullSpace:
Determine if the mapping corresponding to the matrix is injective:
Since , the mapping is not injective:
Confirm the result using FunctionInjective:
Since defines a linear function , the failure to be injective implies a failure to be surjective:
Determine if the matrix defines an automorphism (a bijective linear map):
Since , the mapping is an automorphism:
Confirm the result using FunctionBijective:
Compute the cofactor obtained from removing row i and column j:
Modular computation of a determinant:
Properties & Relations (14)
The determinant is the product of the eigenvalues:
Det satisfies , where is all -permutations and is Signature:
Det can be computed recursively via cofactor expansion along any row:
The determinant is the signed volume of the parallelepiped generated by its rows:
This equals the volume up to sign:
A square matrix has an inverse if and only if its determinant is nonzero:
The determinant of a triangular matrix is the product of its diagonal elements:
The determinant of a matrix product is the product of the determinants:
The determinant of the inverse is the reciprocal of the determinant:
A matrix and its transpose have equal determinants:
The determinant of the matrix exponential is the exponential of the trace:
CharacteristicPolynomial[m] is equal to :
Det[m] can be computed from LUDecomposition[m]:
Consider two rectangular matrices and such that and are both square:
Sylvester's determinant theorem states that , where is the matching identity matrix:
If a matrix is the TensorProduct of two vectors and , then :
This can be expressed equally in terms of KroneckerProduct:
This follows from Sylvester's determinant theorem for the corresponding row and column matrices:
Text
Wolfram Research (1988), Det, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Det.html (updated 2024).
CMS
Wolfram Language. 1988. "Det." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2024. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Det.html.
APA
Wolfram Language. (1988). Det. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Det.html