chapter 2

Rectangular arrays, matrices and operations

Copyright 2007. Australian Council for Education Research. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair

S t u d e n t ac t i v i t y 2 . 1

a Use a suitable matrix product to calculate the total amount of change held by each
of Michael, Jay, Sam and Lin in the given week.
b If the AustralianUS dollar exchange rate is A$1 =US$0.76, use a suitable scalar
multiple of the matrix in part a to find the equivalent value of their change in US
dollars.

D e f i n i t i o n o f a m a t ri x

An mn matrix, A, is a rectangular array of numbers with m rows and n

columns. We say A is of order, dimension or size, m by n and write mn as
shorthand for this. This does not mean that we wish to calculate the
corresponding arithmetic product, although this will tell us the total number
of elements in matrix A. Unfortunately it is not very helpful to know this as
many matrices can have the same total number of elements.
As in our practical example, the position of each entry, or element, in the
matrix is uniquely determined by its column and row numbers. Thus, we write
R V
S a11 a12 f a1n W
S a21 a22 f a2n W
A=S W
S h h h W
Sam1 am2 f amn W
T X
where the entry in the ith row and jth column, called the (i, j) entry of A, is
denoted aij. In this case the letters i and j are index variables denoting position,
where i runs through 1 to m, that is 1im, and j runs through 1 to n, that
uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

is 1j n.
There are various notations that can be used for matrices. In this text we
will use square brackets to enclose the entries of a matrix. Curve brackets are
also used, however it is conventional to use only one notation in a given
context. Matrices are designated using upper case letters, the entries in a
matrix are identified with the corresponding lower case letter and subscript
indices indicating their position; thus, we sometimes write A=[ai j ] where, as
above, i is the row index and j the column index. As before, aij is the entry in
the ith row and jth column of A and the ranges of i and j are understood to be
those given by the order of the matrix A.

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Two special cases of note are that a m1 matrix is usually called a column
matrix or column vector, while a 1n matrix is usually called a row matrix
or row vector. If a rectangular array is not available for visual display, then a
matrix can be written as a list of lists of equal size, where a list is an ordered
set. For example, the matrix
R V
S 4 0 2 W
S 1 1 1 W
S W
S- 5 10 3 W
S 0 0 3.4 W
T X
is the 43 matrix uniquely defined by the list {{4, 0, 2}, {1, 1, 1}, {5, 10, 3},
{0, 0, 3.4}}.
When technology is used, the data to specify a matrix is either entered into
a template of a specified size (where the dimensions of the matrix needs to be
specified first to obtain the desired template), or as a list of lists.

Example 2.1

If A = = G, then A is a 23 matrix, where a21 = 70 and

150 40 10
70 20 10
a12 = 40 .
R V
S50 W
If B = S 30 W, then B is a 31 column matrix, or column vector, where
SS80 WW
T X
b11 = 50 , b21 = 30 and b 31 = 80 .

If C = 71 - 2 4 A, then C is a 13 row matrix, or row vector, where

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c11 = 1 , c12 =- 2 andc13 = 4 .

O p e ra t i o n s o n m a t ric e s
As we have seen in the earlier practical example, matrices may be added,
subtracted, multiplied by a number (scalar), or multiplied by matrices. Some
of these operations are not always possible; the sizes, or orders, of the matrices
involved is important, that is to say there are conditions to which two matrices
need to conform for their sum, difference or product to be defined, or for them
to be conformable for that operation. In practice, general computation with
matrices of high order is carried out by technology, and the algorithms used
by various programs to carry out these computations need the orders of the

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 chapter 2
Rectangular arrays, matrices and operations
Copyright 2007. Australian Council for Education Research. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair

matrices involved and definitions for the relevant processes in terms of

elements and their indices. Since the various operations on matrices are
defined in terms of their elements, it is important to note that these elements,
and any scalars which may also be involved, are usually regarded as being
drawn from some field, often the real number field, R. Thus, the operations of
addition, subtraction and multiplication defined on elements of matrices are
the natural operations of the relevant field.
An interesting exercise for teachers to work through with students is to
devise programs using basic programming constructs in a suitable high-level
programming language that carry out the operations of matrix arithmetic.

A d d i t i o n a n d s u b t rac t i o n o f t w o
m a t ric e s
If matrices A and B are of the same size mn then A+B is the mn matrix
with (i, j) entry aij+bij, for i=1 to m, j=1 to n. That is,
A+B=[aij]+[bij]=[aij+bij]. In other words, we simply add all the entries
in their corresponding positions throughout the matrix.
Subtraction can be defined in the same way, and
A B=[aij] [bij ]=[aij bij]. In other words, we simply subtract all the
entries in matrix B from their corresponding entries in matrix A.

Example 2.2

R V R V R
S 1 - 2 W S 7 12 W S 1 + 7 ]- 2g + 12 VW RS 8 10 VW
S 3 5 W+ S- 3 1 W = S 3 + ]- 3g 5 + 1 W= S 0 6 W
SS- 4 1 WW SS- 1 2 WW SS]- 4g + ]- 1g 1 + 2 WW SS- 5 3 WW
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T X T X T X T X
R V R V R
S 1 - 2 W S 7 12 W S 1 - 7 ]- 2g - 12 W S- 6 - 14 VW
V R
S 3 5 W- S- 3 1 W = S 3 - ]- 3g 5 - 1 W= S 6 4 W
SS- 4 1 WW SS- 1 2 WW SS]- 4g - ]- 1g 1 - 2 WW SS- 3 - 1 WW
T X T X T X T X

M u l t i p l ica t i o n b y a n u m b e r ( s ca l ar
m u lt i p l e )
Given a matrix A of size mn and a number (scalar) k, then kA is the mn
matrix with (i, j) entry kaij for i=1 to m and j=1 to n. That is, if A=[aij ]
and k is a scalar then kA=k[aij]=[kaij].

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Example 2.3

R V
S 2 - 2W
If k = 3 and A = S 3 7 W, then
SS- 1 5 WW
T X
R V R V
S 2 - 2W S 6 - 6W
3A = A + ]A + Ag = 3 S 3 7 W = S 9 21 W
SS- 1 5 WW SS- 3 15 WW
T X T X

Note that subtraction can also be expressed in terms of a scalar multiple,

with k =- 1 , and the addition operation. If A and B have the same size, then

A - B = A + ]- Bg
with entries the sums aij+(bij) of the corresponding entries in A and (B).

Example 2.4

S 1 - 2 W S 7 12 W S1 + ]- 7g - 2 + ]- 12gW S- 6 - 14 W
R V R V R V R V
S 3 5 W- S- 3 1 W = S 3 + 3 5 + ]- 1g W = S 6 4 W
SS- 4 1 WW SS- 1 2 WW SS - 4 + 1 1 + ]- 2g WW SS- 3 - 1 WW
T X T X T X T X

There is a special matrix, called the zero matrix O=[oij] where oij=0 for
all i and j. For any matrix A, A - A = O .

Example 2.5
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1 -2 3 2 4 -1
If A = > H and B = > H, then
4 2 -1 -1 3 2
1 -2 3 2 4 -1
i A+B => H+> H
4 2 -1 -1 3 2
1 + 2 ]- 2g + 4 3 + ]- 1g
== G == G
3 2 2
4 + ]- 1g 2 + 3 ]- 1g + 2 3 5 1

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