Matrix Computations

(16B1NMA533)
Semester: Vth

Department of Mathematics
Jaypee Institute of Information Technology
Noida

1
Module No. Topic CO
Sub matrix and minor
1 1
Linearly dependent and independent
of vectors

Echelon form of matrix

Reduced row Echelon form

Rank of matrix by various ways

2
A matrix obtained by deleting some rows or column or both of a given matrix
is called its sub matrix. If,

1 5 0 
A 
9 1 7 

8 0 1

then 1 5 
B 
8 0 
is the sub matrix of A obtained by deleting second row and third column.

Note: Simply rearrangement of elements of A does not produce sub matrices.

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Minor

Let A be an m × n matrix.
A minor of matrix A of order k is a determinant of a k × k sub-matrix of A.
Or, Determinant of square sub matrix is termed as minor of matrix.

1 5 
For example, determinant of sub matrix B  is minor of A.
8 0 

We can obtain the minors of order k from A by first deleting m − k rows and
n − k columns, and then computing the determinant. There are usually many
minors of A of a given order.

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Example : Find the minors of order 3 of the matrix
1 0 2 1
A
 0 2 4 2 


0 2 2 1 

Solution: The determinants of order 3 can be obtained by keeping all the rows and
deleting one column from A. So there are four different minors of order 3.
One of them can be computed as: 1 0 2
0 2 4  4
0 2 2
The minors of order 3 are called the maximal minors of A, since there are no 4 × 4 sub-
matrices of A.

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 A vector can be defined as a matrix with only one row or column.
 Its entries are called the components of the vector.
 Vectors are denoted by lowercase boldface letters a, b, … or by its
general component in brackets, a = [aj], and so on.

 A (general) row vector is of the form a=[a1 a2 … an]. Thus, in a

matrix of order m by n, there are m row vectors and n column vectors.
b1 
b 
 2
 Similarly, a column vector is of the form b=  .  .
 
. 
b m 
 

 A vector containing n components is known as n-tuple of numbers.

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Given any set of m vectors a1, a2…, am (with the same number of
components), a linear combination of these vectors is an expression
of the form
c1a1 + c2a2+ … + cmam
where c1, c2, … , cm are any scalars.
Consider the equation
c1a1 + c2a2+ … + cmam = 0 (1)
The vector equation (1) holds if we choose all cj’s zero, because then
it becomes 0 = 0.
If this is the only m-tuple of scalars for which (1) holds, then our
vectors a1, a2…, am are said to form a linearly independent set or,
more briefly, we call them linearly independent.

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 Otherwise, if (1) also holds with scalars not all zero, we call these
vectors as linearly dependent.

 This means that we can express at least one of the vectors as a

linear combination of the other vectors. For instance, if (1) holds
with, say, c1 ≠ 0, we can solve (1) for a1 or any other vector.
a1 = k2 a2 + … + kmam where kj = −cj /c1
 If a relation can be established between vectors, then it is termed
as linearly dependent otherwise linearly independent.
Example: 2u+3v= -w where, u, v and w are vectors of same
components.

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A m x n matrix is in row echelon form if it satisfies the following properties:

1. Rows containing all zeros occur only after all non-zero rows i.e. at the
bottom.
2. The leading coefficient of a nonzero row is always strictly to the right of
the leading coefficient of the row above it.

Note: These two conditions imply that all entries in a column below a leading
coefficient are zeros.
Example: 1 3 5 7 
A 
 0 5 4 1 


 0 0 0 9 

1  1 2 3
B 
 0 0 3 5 


0 0 0 0  

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A matrix is in reduced row echelon form (also called row canonical form) if it
satisfies the following conditions:
• It is in row echelon form.

• The leading entry in each nonzero row is a 1 (called a leading 1).

• Each column containing a leading 1 has zeros in all its other entries.

Note: Unlike the row echelon form, the reduced row echelon form of a matrix
is unique.
Example: An example of a matrix in reduced row echelon form, which shows
that the left part of the matrix is not always an identity matrix

1 0 5 0 6 
0 1 7 0 7 
 
0 0 0 1 3 

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I. Rank of a matrix in terms of determinants
 The rank of a matrix A, denoted by r or r(A) is the order of the largest non-zero
minor of |A|.

 The rank of the matrix is the largest value of r, for which there exists at least one
r x r sub matrix of A whose determinant is not zero.

 For an m x n matrix r ≤ min (m, n).

 For a square matrix A of order n, the rank r = n if |A|≠0, otherwise r<n.

 The rank of a matrix is 0 only if it is a null matrix.

 The rank of a matrix does not change if some elementary row operations are
applied on matrix A.

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II. Rank of a matrix in terms of Echelon form

 In terms of row echelon form, the rank of a matrix A can be defined as the
number of non-zero rows in the row echelon form of a matrix A.
 If A is a square matrix, then the row echelon form is an upper triangular
matrix and the column echelon form is a lower triangular matrix.
 A non zero row implies having at least one element other than zero in that
row.

Rank (A)=r(A)= number of non-zero rows in A

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III. Rank of a matrix in terms of vectors
The rank of a matrix is defined as:

 the maximum number of linearly independent column vectors in the matrix or, Or,

the maximum number of linearly independent row vectors in the matrix.

Important points:

1. A set of m vectors each having n components is said to be linearly dependent if

matrix formed using these vectors has rank less than m.

2. If rank of those m vectors is equal to m, then the vectors are linearly

independent.

3. The maximum number of linearly independent vectors in a matrix is equal to

the number of non-zero rows in its row echelon matrix.

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Step 1: For a given matrix A of order n, find the determinant of A (if easily
possible), if |A| is non zero, then rank=n.
In case, |A|=0, then look for determinants or minors of order less than n till
we find a minor with value as non-zero.
In case, a determinant of order p (< n) has non zero value, then order of A is
said to be p if and only if every determinant of order p+1 is zero.

Step 2: Sometimes, finding determinant is tedious task, so try to reduce

given matrix to row echelon form by using elementary row operations.
The number of non-zero rows will give rank of the matrix.

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Example: Determine rank of the matrix
3 0 2 2 
A   6 42 24 54 

 21 21 0 15 

3 0 2 2 
Solution: Given A   6 42 24 54 
 21 21 0 15 

Applying row operations, we have

3 0 2 2 
  R 2  R 2 +2R 1 
 0 42 28 58   
 R 3  R 3 -7R 1 
0 21 14 29 
3 0 2 2 
 0 42 28 58  R3  R3  0.5 R2 
0 0 0 0 

The last matrix is in row-echelon form and has two nonzero rows.
Hence rank A = 2.

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Example: Reduce the matrix A to row echelon form and find its rank.
1 2 3 4
2 1 4 5 
A 
1 5 5 7 
 
8 1 14 17 

Solution: Applying row operations:

1 2 3 4
2 R  2 R1 
1 4 5  2 
A   R3  R1 
1 5 5 7 
  R  8 R1 
8 1 14 17   4 

1 2 3 4 
0 3 2 5  R R
 
3 2 

0 3 2 3   R4  5 R2 
 
0  15  10  15 
1 2 3 4
0 3 2  3
  Rank (A)=2
0 0 0 0
 
0 0 0 0

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Example: Reduce the matrix A to column echelon form and find its rank.
 1 1 1 1
 1 1  3  3 
A 
 1 0 1 2 
 
 1 1 3 3 

Solution: Applying column operations:

 1 1 1 1
 1 C  C1 
1 3 3  2
A  C 3  C1 

 1 0 1 2  
  C 4  C1 
 1 1 3 3 
 1 0 0 0
 1 2 4  2  C 3  2C 2 
  
 1 1 2 1  C 4  C 2 
 
 1 2 4 2
 1 0 0 0
 1 2 0 0
 
 1 1 0 0
 
 1 2 0 0

Rank (A)=2=number of non zero columns.

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Example: Examine whether the set of vectors is linearly independent.
(1,2,3,4), (2,0,1,-2), (3,2,4,2).
Solution: Let each given vector represent a row of a matrix A. We reduce A to row-
echelon form. If all the rows of the row echelon form have some non-zero
elements, then the given set of vectors is linearly independent.
1 2 3 4
   R2  2 R1 
A  2 0 1  2  
 R3  3 R1 

3 2 4 2 

1 2 3 4 

0  4  5  10 
 R3  R2 

0  4  5  10 

1 2 3 4 
 
 0  4  5  10 

0 0 0 0 

Since, all the rows in the row echelon form of A are not non-zero, the given set of
vectors are linearly dependent.

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Example: Consider vectors r1 = [1, 2]
r2 = [0, 1]
r3 = [3, 4].
Check if the vectors r1, r2. r3 are linearly dependent or independent.

Solution: The vectors r1, r2, and r3 are linearly dependent because

3r1 − 2r2 − r3 = 0.

On the other hand, r1 and r2 are linearly independent because equation

c1r1 + c2r2 = 0

has a unique solution c1 = c2 = 0.

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1. Examine whether the set of vectors is linearly independent.

(1,1,0,1), (1,1,1,1), (-1,1,1,1), (1,0,0,1).

2. Reduce the matrix A to row echelon form and find its rank.
 1 3 5 
 
A   2 1 4 
 2 8 2 

3. Find all values of µ for which the rank of the matrix A is 3.

  1 0 0
 0  1 0
A   
 0 0   1
 
 6 11  6 1 

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