A bi-diagonal method for finding the determinant of a matrix

Abstract

The determinant of a matrix always depends on the concept of row or column. That is to evaluate the determinant of a matrix using several existing methods we use rows and column. In this paper we introduce the concept of false-determinant which is the determinant obtained using the diagonal elements of a matrix instead of rows or columns and present a method which uses this concept to find the determinant of a 3 x 3 matrix.

Keywords: matrix; determinant; diagonal; false-determinant

Journal of the Nigerian Association of Mathematical Physics, Volume 19 (November, 2011), pp 139 – 142