APPLICATIONS OF

DETERMINANTS

2x2 matrix. (I know, you can hardly wait, but be

patient my children.)

We begin by asking you to recall that

moment not so long ago when you were in an
algebra or geometry class, and a problem might
begin when we gave you the coordinates of three
points in the coordinate plane, A=(2,1); B=(5,6)
and C= (9,-1). Among the myriad things we might
have asked you to do with this given information
would be two that are easily answered by the
methods of determinants; Find the area of the
triangle formed? and Prove that the three points
are, or are not, collinear (lie on the same line).

Extension and generalization

But Mr. Ballew, we live in three-space and you
have shown us something we can use on questions
about a two-space plane. Isnt there any application
of a determinant that would apply to REAL life
three-space? you ask. Being only your humble
servant, I respond with a three-space analogy to
what you have already learned above.

Finding the area of a triangle

If you had not had the benefit of an
introduction to
determinants, you
might have to resort to
something like the
following to find area.
Taking the points in
pairs we could find the length of each segment, (
34 , 65 , and 53 ) and then employing the
well known formula of Heron (you do remember
Herons Formula, dont you?) to find the area. We
would arrive at an area of 20.5 square units. But
now that you know how to evaluate the determinant
of a matrix, we can instead just enter the x values of
each point as one column of the matrix, enter the y
values as a second column, and add a third column
of all ones (someday I will explain about cross
products of vectors and this third column will seem
more clear). We get the matrix shown at right. And
if we evaluate the determinant of the matrix we get
41, as the screen capture shows. Two things may
concern you; but if you are at all clever, you realize
that the area 20.5 is the determinant of 41 except
for the sign. At this point I remind you that the sign
of the determinant depends on the order we enter
the values, and if we switch the 1st and 2nd rows, we
get a positive determinant. So if we can suspend
the concerns and accept that the area of the triangle
formed is the absolute value of the determinant,
we have hit upon a easy, efficient, way to find the
area of a triangle using technology and our new
friend the determinant. (Now is when you say
Wow, way cool!)
But what about the other problem of proving
that the three points lie in a straight line. Well, if
they were in a straight line, the area of the triangle
would be zero, and the determinant would be zero,
and that would tell us. If the points are NOT in a
straight line, the determinant will NOT be zero
because any three points in a plane which are NOT
collinear, form a triangle with a non-zero area. So
the same determinant answers both questions.
Postscript: After we learn a little about
algebraic vectors we will do this same thing with a

Volume of a Tetrahedron and

Co-planer points
If we expand all our points to spatial
XYZ coordinates then we can extend the axiom that
any three non-collinear points determine a plane
and thus a triangle (you remember, geometry) to
another that says it takes four points to determine a
spatial object. The simple space generalization of a
triangle is called a tetrahedron, (from the Greek
roots tetra for four, and hedron for surface); but
you may have learned
it as a triangular based
pyramid. You will
notice that it has four
vertices, and forms
four triangles in space
out of each set of three points. If we want to find
the volume of the tetrahedron we could find the area
of one of the triangles, then we would need to find
the equation of the plane containing the triangle so
that we could find the equation of the line
perpendicular to it that passed through the opposite
vertex. Next we would need to find the point where
this perpendicular intersected the plane of the
triangle, and then we could find the distance from
this point to the opposite vertex. With all that done
we could finally find the volume of the tetrahedron
by using the formula V= 1/3 Bh where the B
represents the area of the base triangle. Or we
could simply assign the four space points into a four
by four matrix and adding the column of ones at the
right as we did in two-space. Because we are
working in three space, we will have to divide the
determinant by 3! =6 this time to get the true
volume.[Remember that the formula for a pyramid
is 1/3 the base area times the height, and the base
area is a triangle = b h, so we have 1/3 of or
1/6 of the rectangular box described]. Of course if
we make all four points lie on the same plane, the
determinant would be zero, so this determinant also
tests if four points are co-planer.
Here is an example using the four 3-D points
A=(2, 5, 11); B= (8, 3, 6); C=(-3, 12, 2) and D= (3,
-1, 4). The screen shot at the right shows theresult
before we divide by six to get the volume of 107.5
cubic units.

May we have some practice problems, please?

1) For the given set of points, find the area of
the triangles named below
A=(2,3)
B=(4, 7, )
-5)
E=(5, -3)

C=( 12, 3)

D=(-3,

ABC= _____ACE= _____ ACD= _____

ABC= _____ BCD= _____
Use the equation y=3x-1 and find three points on
the line. Prove the three points are collinear by
showing that the triangle they form has an area of
zero.
Find the area of the tetrahedron formed by the four
spatial points below
A=(-3, 1, 7) B=(6,12,5) C=( 9, -2, 8) D=(1, 4,3)

Transcript of Using determinants

in real life
Assignment
2,5,1,13,0,13,5,0,21,16,0,19,3,15,20,20,2
5,0
Now use the coded alphabet to translate
to:
BEAM_ME_UP_SCOTTY_ The decoded
numbers are: If you dont know the
matrix used to encode - decoding would
be very difficult. When a larger coding
matrix is used, decoding is even more
difficult. But for an authorized receiver
who knows the matrix A, decoding is
simple.
The receiver only needs to multiply the
coded row matrices by A-1 on the right to
retrieve the decoded message. Decoding
using Matrices 7 5 20 0 8 5 12 16
[7 5 ][20 0][8 5][12 16]
Encode use A= Convert: GET HELP A
message written according to a secret
code.
From the Greek word Kryptos meaning
hidden and gramma meaning letter
Cryptograms The solution is: (-3,7) !!!
Solve the system:
2x+y=1
3x-2y=-23 Example 2- Cramers Rule 2x2
Square units = Area= Find the area of

the triangle. 8.5 Cont. Using Matrices and

Determinants in Real Life Use this matix
to decode.
-4,3,-23,12,-26,13,15,-5,31,-5,-38,19,
-21,12,20,0,75,-25
First, group the numbers in twos.
Find the inverse of the matrix used to
code.
Then multiply the 1x2 coded matrices by
the inverse on the right to get the
decoded numbers. Decoding using
Matrices cont Assign a number to each
letter in the alphabet with out a blank
space.
Convert the message to numbers
partitioned into 1x2 uncoded row
matrices.
To encode a message, choose a 2x2
matrix A that has an inverse and multiply
the uncoded row matrices by A on the
right to obtain coded row matrices Steps
to create a cryptogram The answer is:
(2,0,1)!!! Z=1 Lets solve for Z Solve the
system:
x+3y-z=1
-2x-6y+z=-3
3x+5y-2z=4 Example 3- Cramers Rule
3x3 Solution: (-1,2) So: and The
coefficient matrix is: Solve the system:
8x+5y=2
2x-4y=-10 Example 1- Cramers Rule 2x2
and Let A be the coefficient matrix
Linear System Coeff Matrix Coeff Det.
ax+by=e
cx+dy=f = A

If detA 0, then the system has exactly

one solution: Cramers Rule for 2x2
System Square units = Area= Find the
area of the triangle. *Where is used to
produce a positive area!! The area of a
triangle with vertices (x1,y1), (x2,y2),
and (x3,y3)

Area = Area of a Triangle! The coded

message is: 9,11,40,60,11,14,8,4
Encoding Cont r

Cramer's rule:
For linear system
, if
system has the unique solution,

, then the

where
is the matrix obtained by
replacing the i-th column of A by b.

Example 1:
Solve for the following system of linear equations by Cramer's rule,

Solution:
The coefficient matrix A and the vector b are

,
respectively. Then,

Thus,
Areas:
Triangle:

Consider the triangle with vertices

and

The area of the triangle is

.
Example 2:
Compute the area of the triangle with vertices
Solution:
The area is

and

.
Parallelogram:
Suppose we have a parallelogram with vertices

and

Then, the area of the parallelogram is