Matrices and Systems of Linear Equations Matrices Matrice arise naturally in many different ways one of the most

common being in the study of systems of linear equation such as

In system (1) the numbers aij are the coefcients of the equations, the numbers bi are the nonhomogeneous terms, and the number of equations mmay equal, exceed, or be less than n, the number of unknowns System (1) is said to be homogeneous when nonhomogeneous when at least one of the bi is nonvanishing. The algebraic properties of the system are determined by the array of coefcients aij, the nonhomogeneous terms bi and the numbers m and n. From now on, the array of coefcients and the nonhomogeneous terms on the right will be denoted by the single symbols A and b, respectively, where , and to be

And

The array of mn coefcients aij in m rows and n columns that form A is an example of an m n matrix, where m n is read m by n. The array b is an example of an m 1 matrix, and it is called an m element column vector.

Each entry in a matrix is called an element of the matrix, and entries may be numbers, functions, or even matrices themselves. example, if A is a 3 2 matrix

Denition of a matrix An m n matrix is an array of mn entries, called elements, arranged in mrows and n columns. If a matrix is denoted by A, then the element in its ith row and jth column is denoted by aij and

The following are typical examples of matrices :