Do you know what is a determinant? A determinant of a matrix is a special number which is defined only for square matrix. It can be calculated in several ways, today we’ll introduce one of them which is called Laplace expansion.
Why do we need determinants? Basically, the determinant can tell us a lot of useful things about matrix, it’s helpful when finding the inverse matrix and solving systems of linear equations (recall Cramer’s rule) and so on. (more…)