DADiSP Worksheet Functions > Function Categories > Matrix Math and Special Matrices > DET

 

DET

Purpose:

Computes the determinant of a square matrix.

Syntax:

DET(a)

a

-

A square matrix.

Returns:

A real.

Example:

W1: {{1, 3, 4},

     {5, 6, 7},  

     {8, 9, 12}} 

 

det(W1)

 

returns -15.

 

a = {{1, 2, 3},

     {4, 5, 6}, 

     {7, 8, 9}} 

 

det(a) returns 0, indicating the INVERSE of matrix a does not exist.

Remarks:

A determinant of 0 indicates the matrix is singular to machine precision and the matrix inverse cannot be found.

 

See DADiSP/MatrixXL to significantly optimize DET.

See Also:

*^ (Matrix Multiply)

DADiSP/MatrixXL

INVERSE

MMULT

PINV

TRANSPOSE