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You may or may not have seen this
before -- it depends on where you took your last Algebra class.
First, I need to tell you about
determinants. We'll be using these to solve systems.
Say you've got a
2 x 2:
We can make something called a
"coefficient matrix":
![a coefficient matrix ... [ top row: 1 , -3 bottom row: 5 , 7 ]](images/01-determinants-03.gif)
A matrix is just a grid of numbers
with brackets around them. (Remember that a coefficient is the
number in front of the variable...
x =
1x,
so the coefficient is
1.)
(We'll learn more about these matrix things in the next chapter.)
We've got rows and columns of the
matrix:
![[ top row: 1 , -3 bottom row: 5 , 7 ] ... row 1 = 1 , -3 ... row 2 = 5 , 7 ... column 1 = 1 , 5 ... column 2 = -3 , 7](images/01-determinants-04.gif)
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