5.3.

BASIC PROPERTIES OF DETERMINANTS 49

Example 5.2.8 (Upper Triangular Determinant) This example shows that

the value of an upper triangular determinant is the product of all elements
on the main diagonal.

a11 a12 · · · a1n a22 a23 · · · a2n

0 a22 · · · a2n 0 a33 · · · a3n
= a11 × (−1)1+1
··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ···
0 0 · · · ann 0 0 · · · ann

a33 a34 · · · a3n

0 a44 · · · a4n
= a11 × a22 × (−1)1+1
··· ··· ··· ···
0 0 · · · ann

= · · · = a11 × a22 × ann .

5.3 Basic Properties of Determinants

Property I. The determinant of a matrix A has the same value as that of its
transpose A′ , i.e.,
|A| = |A′ |.

Example 5.3.1 For

a b
|A| = = ad − bc,
c d

we have
a c
|A′ | = = ad − bc = |A|.
b d

Property II. The interchange of any two rows (or any two columns) will alter
the sign, but not the numerical value of the determinant.
50CHAPTER 5. LINEAR MODELS AND MATRIX ALGEBRA (CONTINUED)

a b
Example 5.3.2 = ad − bc, but the interchange of the two rows yields
c d

c d
= bc − ad = −(ad − bc).
a b

Property III. The multiplication of any one row (or one column) by a scalar
k will change the value of the determinant k-fold, i.e., for |A|,

a11 a12 ··· a1n a11 a12 · · · a1n

··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ···
kai1 kai2 · · · kain = k ai1 ai2 · · · ain = k|A|.
··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ···
an1 an2 ··· ann an1 an2 · · · ann

In contrast, the factoring of a matrix requires the presence of a common

divisor for all its elements, as in
   
a
 11
a12 · · · a1n  ka
 11
ka12 · · · ka1n 
  
 a21 a22 · · · a2n 
 ka21 ka22 · · · ka2n 
 
 
k

= .
· · · ··· 
···  
 ··· ··· ··· 

   
an1 an2 · · · ann kan1 kan2 · · · kann

Property IV. The addition (subtraction) of a multiple of any row (or column)
to (from) another row (or column) will leave the value of the determinant unal-
tered.

This is an extremely useful property, which can be used to greatly sim-

plify the computation of a determinant.
5.3. BASIC PROPERTIES OF DETERMINANTS 51

Example 5.3.3

a b a b
= a(d + kb) − b(c + ka) = ad − bc = .
c + ka d + kb c d

Example 5.3.4

a b b b a + 3b b b b a + 3b b b b
b a b b a + 3b a b b 0 a−b 0 0
= = = (a+3b)(a−b)3 .
b b a b a + 3b b a b 0 0 a−b 0
b b b a a + 3b b b a 0 0 0 a−b

The second determinant in the above equation is obtained by adding

the second column, the third column and the fourth column into the first
column, respectively. The third determinant is obtained by adding the mi-
nus of the first row to the second row, the third row, and the fourth row in
the second determinant, respectively. Since the fourth determinant is up-
per triangle, the value is the product of all elements on the main diagonal.

Example 5.3.5

1 2 3 4 10 2 3 4 10 2 3 4
2 3 4 1 10 3 4 1 0 1 1 −3
= = = −168.
3 4 1 2 10 4 1 2 0 2 −2 −2
4 1 2 3 10 1 2 3 0 −1 −1 −1

Example 5.3.6

−2 5 −1 3 0 −13 25 17
−13 25 17
1 −9 13 7 1 −9 13 7
= = (−1)1+2 26 −34 −26 = 312.
3 −1 5 −5 0 26 −34 −26
26 −33 −24
2 8 −7 −10 0 26 −33 −24
52CHAPTER 5. LINEAR MODELS AND MATRIX ALGEBRA (CONTINUED)

The second determinant in the above equation is obtained by adding a

multiple 2 of the second row to the first row; a multiple -3 of the second
row to the third row, and a multiple -2 of the second row to the fourth row,
respectively.

Property V. If one row (or column) is a multiple of another row (or column),
the value of the determinant will be zero.

Example 5.3.7
ka kb
= kab − kab = 0.
a b

Remark 5.3.1 Property V is a logic consequence of Property IV.

Property VI. If A and B are both square matrices, then |AB| = |A||B|.
The above basic properties are useful in several ways. For one thing,
they can be of great help in simplifying the task of evaluating determi-
nants. By subtracting multipliers of one row (or column) from another, for
instance, the elements of the determinant may be reduced to much simpler
numbers. If we can indeed apply these properties to transform some row
or column into a form containing mostly 0’s or 1’s, Laplace expansion of
the determinant will become a much more manageable task.
Property VII. |A−1 | = 1
|A|
. As a consequence, if A−1 exists, we must
have |A ̸= 0. The converse is also true.
Recipe - How to Calculate the Determinant:

1. The multiplication of any one row (or column) by a scalar k

will change the value of the determinant k-fold.

2. The interchange of any two rows (columns) will change the

sign but not the numerical value of the determinant.

3. If a multiple of any row is added to (or subtracted from)

any other row it will not change the value or the sign of
5.3. BASIC PROPERTIES OF DETERMINANTS 53

the determinant. The same holds true for columns (i.e. the
determinant is not affected by linear operations with rows
(or columns)).

4. If two rows (or columns) are proportional, i.e., they are lin-
early dependent, then the determinant will vanish.

5. The determinant of a triangular matrix is a product of its

principal diagonal elements.

Using these rules, we can simplify the matrix (e.g. obtain as many zero
elements as possible) and then apply Laplace expansion.

Determinantal Criterion for Nonsingularity

Our present concern is primarily to link the linear dependence of

rows with the vanishing of a determinant. By property I, we can easily see
that row independence is equivalent to column independence.
Given a linear-equation system Ax = d, where A is an n × n coefficient
matrix, we have

|A| ̸= 0 ⇔ A is row (or column) independent

⇔ rank(A) = n
⇔ A is nonsingular
⇔ A−1 exists
e = A−1 d exists.
⇔ a unique solution x

Thus the value of the determinant of A provides a convenient criterion

for testing the nonsingularity of matrix A and the existence of a unique
solution to the equation system Ax = d.
54CHAPTER 5. LINEAR MODELS AND MATRIX ALGEBRA (CONTINUED)

Rank of a Matrix Redefined

The rank of a matrix A was earlier defined to be the maximum number

of linearly independent rows in A. In view of the link between row inde-
pendence and the nonvanishing of the determinant, we can redefine the rank
of an m × n matrix as the maximum order of a nonvanishing determinant that
can be constructed from the rows and columns of that matrix. The rank of any
matrix is a unique number.
Obviously, the rank can at most be m or n for a m × n matrix A,
whichever is smaller, because a determinant is defined only for a square
matrix. Symbolically, this fact can be expressed as follows:

γ(A) ≤ min{m, n}.

 
 1 3 2 1 3 2
  1 3
Example 5.3.8 rank
 2 6 4
 = 2 since 2 6 4 = 0 and ̸= 0.
  2 6
−5 7 1 −5 7 1
One can also see this because the first two rows are linearly dependent,
but the last two are independent, therefore the maximum number of lin-
early independent rows is equal to 2.

Properties of the rank:

1) The column rank and the row rank of a matrix are equal.

2) rank(AB) ≤ min{rank(A); rank(B)}.

3) rank(A) = rank(AA′ ) = rank(A′ A).

5.4 Finding the Inverse Matrix

If the matrix A in the linear-equation system Ax = d is nonsingular, then
A−1 exists, and the unique solution of the system will be x̄ = A−1 d. We