VARDHAMAN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, HYDERABAD

An Autonomous Institute Affiliated to JNTUH

A7003 – LINEAR ALGEBRA AND OPTIMIZATION

Handout # 1
Basics of Matrices Algebra
Matrix

A matrix is a collection of number (real or complex) arranged in the form of a rectangular array

These numbers known as element or entries are enclosed by   or ( )

 a11 a12  a14 
a a22  a24 
Therefore, a matrix A may be expressed as A   or A  [aij ]mxn
21

    
 
 am1 am 2  amn  mxn

The horizontal lines are called rows and vertical lines are called columns. The order of matrix A is mxn .

1.1 Types of Matrices

i) Row Matrix: A matrix having only one row and any number of columns is called a row

matrix. A  1 2 31x3

ii) Column Matrix: A matrix having only one column and any number of rows is called a

1 
 
column matrix. A  4
 
 0  3x1
iii) Null / Zero Matrix: A matrix of any order having all its elements are zero, is called null /
zero matrix.
iv) Rectangular Matrix: A matrix of order mxn ,such that m  n , is called rectangular
matrix.
v) Square Matrix: A matrix of order mxn ,such that m  n ,is called square matrix.
vi) Diagonal matrix : A square matrix A  [aij ]nxn is called a diagonal matrix, if all the

elements except those in the leading diagonals are zero,i.e aij  0 for i  j .It can be

represented as A  diag[a11 , a22 ,   ann ]

vii) Scalar Matrix: A square matrix in which every non-diagonal elementis equal, is called the
scalar matrix, aij  0 for i  j and aij  k for i  j

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 viii) Unit/Identity Matrix: A square matrix, in which every diagonal element is one and every
diagonal element is zero, is called unit matrix or Identity matrix,
i.e aij  0 for i  j and aij  1 for i  j

ix) Upper Triangular Matrix: A square matrix A  [aij ]nxn is called a upper triangular

matrix, if aij  0 for i  j

x) Lower Triangular Matrix: A square matrix A  [aij ]nxn is called a upper triangular

matrix, if aij  0 for i  j

xi) Submatrix:A matrix which is obtained from a given matrix by deleting any number of rows
or columns or both is called a submatrix of the given matrix.
xii) Equal Matrices: Two matrices A and B are said to be equal, if both the matrices are having
same order and corresponding elements are equal.
xiii) Principal Diagonal of a Matrix. In a square matrix, the diagonal form the first element of
the first row to the last element of the last row is called the principal diagonal of a matrix.

 1 2 3
eg. If A  7 6 5 ,then principal diagonal of A is 1,6,9
 
 4 8 9 
xiv) Singular Matrix:A square matrix A is said to be singular matrix, if determinant of A denoted

by det( A) or A is zero,i.e A  0 ,otherwise it is a non-singular matrix ( A  0 )

Algebra of Matrices

1.2.1. Addition of Matrices

Let A and B be two matrices each of order mxn .Then, the sum of matrices A  B is defined only if
matrices are of same order. If A  [aij ]mxn and B  [bij ]mxn .Then, A  B  [aij  bij ]mxn .

Properties of Addition of Matrices

If A , B and C are three matrices of order mxn ,then

i) Commutative Law: A  B  B  A
ii) Associative Law: A  ( B  C )  ( A  B)  C
iii) Existence of Additive Identity: A zero matrix (0) of order mxn (same as of A), is additive
identity, if A  0  A  0  A
iv) Existence of Additive Inverse: If A is a square matrix, then the matrix   A is called
additive inverse, if A    A  0  A    A
v) Cancellation Law: A  B  A  C  B  C [left cancellation law]
B  A  C  A  B  C [Right cancellationlaw]

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 1.2.2 Subtraction of Matrices

Let A and B be two matrices of same order mxn .Then, the subtraction of matrices , A  B is defined
as A  B  [aij  bij ]mxn ,where A  [aij ]mxn and B  [bij ]mxn .

1.2.3. Multiplication of a Matrix by a scalar

Let A  [aij ]mxn be a matrix and k be any scalar .Then the matrix obtained by multiplying each
element of A by k is called the scalar multiple of A by k and is denoted by Ak defined as

kA  [kaij ]mxn

Properties of Scalar multiplication

Let A and B be two matrices of order mxn ,then

i) k ( A  B )  kA  kB
ii) (k1  k2 ) A  k1 A  k2 A
iii) k1k2 A  k1 (k2 A)  k2 (k1 A)
iv) (k1 ) A  (kA)  k ( A)

1.2.4. Multiplication of Matrices

Let A  [aij ]mxn and B  [bij ]nxp are two matrices such that the number of columns of A is equal to the
n
number of rows of B then multiplication of A and B is denoted by AB is given by C  a
k 1
b
ik kj

where Cij is the element of matrix C and C  AB

 a1 a2   b1 b2   a1b1  a2b3 a1b2  a2b4 

e.g If A    and B    then AB   
 a3 a4   b3 b4   a3b1  a4b3 a3b2  a4b4 

Properties of multiplication of matrices

i) Associative Law: ( AB)C  A( BC )

ii) Existence of Multiplicative Identity: A.I  A  I .A where I is called multiplicative
Identity.
iii) Distributive Law: A( B  C )  AB  AC
iv) Cancellation Law: AB  AC  B  C [left cancellation law]
BA  CA  B  C [Right cancellation law]
v) Zero Matrix as the product of two non-zero matrices:
AB  0  A  0 or B  0 or both A  0 and B  0

1.3. Positive Integral power of a square matrix:

Let A be a square matrix then we can define

i) An1  An . A where n  N
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 ii) Am . An  Amn
iii) ( Am )n  Amn  m, n  N
1.4. Matrix polynomial:

Let f ( x)  a0 x n  a1 x n 1  a2 x n  2      an then
f ( A)  a0 An  a1 An 1  a2 An  2      an I n is called matrix of polynomial

1.5.Transpose of a matrix:

Let A  [aij ]mxn be a matrix of order mxn then the nxm matrix obtained by interchanging the rows and

columns of is called the transpose of A and is denoted by A or AT i.e A  AT  aij 

nxm

Properties of Transpose matrix:

For any two matrices A and B of any orders

i) ( A)  A
ii) ( A  B)  A  B
iii) ( kA)  kA
iv) ( AB)  BA
v) ( An )  ( A)n
vi) ( ABC )  C BA

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