Starting with the definition for the determinant of the n × n matrix:

1 I1 I2 ···In J1 J2 ···Jn
Det [M ] =   MI1 J1 MI2 J2 · · · MIn Jn (1)
n!
For example for 2 × 2:
1 I1 I2 J1 J2 1 12 12
  M11 M22 +12 21 M12 M21 +21 12 M21 M12 +21 21 M22 M11


Det [M ] =   MI1 J1 MI2 J2 =
2 2
= M11 M22 −M12 M21 (2)
Now the cofactor for the matrix M , denoted as Cof [MIJ ], is defined as taking the
determinant for the (n−1) × (n−1) matrix that arrises from eliminating the I-th row and
J-th column, multiplied by (−1)I+J . For example starting with the 3 × 3 matrix
 
M11 M12 M13  
M 11 M 12
M =  M21 M22 M23  , Cof [M23 ] = −Det (3)
M31 M32
M31 M32 M33

HW1: Show that the determinant of M can be written as

Det[M ] = M1J Cof [M1J ]+M2J Cof [M2J ]+ · · · MnJ Cof [MnJ ], f or f ixed J
= MI1 Cof [MI1 ]+MI2 Cof [MI2 ]+ · · · MIn Cof [MIn ], f or f ixed I (4)

using the formal definition of determinant for the n × n and n−1 × n−1 matrix as shown
in eq.(1).
HW2: Please discuss why
VaI (Vb Vc Vd Ve )+VbI (Vc Vd Ve Va )+VcI (Vd Ve Va Vb )+VdI (Ve Va Vb Vc )+VeI (Va Vb Vc Vd ) = 0 (5)