1.

History
3rd century BC and 16th Century
Determinants were first used in the Chinese mathematics textbook The Nine Chapters on the
Mathematical Art ,Chinese scholars, around the In Europe, 2 2 determinants were considered
by Cardano at the end of the 16th century and larger ones by Leibniz.
17th Century
In Japan, Seki Takakazu is credited with the discovery with the resultant and determinant (at
first in 1683, the complete version no later than 1710). In Europe, Cramer (1750) added to the
theory, treating the subject in relation to sets of equations. The recurrence law was first
announced by Bzout (1764).
It was Vandermonde (1771) who first recognized determinants as independent functions. Laplace
(1772) [21][22] gave the general method of expanding a determinant in terms of its complementary
minors: Vandermonde had already given a special case. Immediately following, Lagrange (1773)
treated determinants of the second and third order. Lagrange was the first to apply determinants
to questions of elimination theory; he proved many special cases of general identities.
18TH Century
Gauss (1801) made the next advance. Like Lagrange, he made much use of determinants in the
theory of numbers. He introduced the word determinant (Laplace had used resultant), though not
in the present signification, but rather as applied to the discriminant of a quantic. Gauss also
arrived at the notion of reciprocal (inverse) determinants, and came very near the multiplication
theorem.
The next contributor of importance is Binet (1811, 1812), who formally stated the theorem
relating to the product of two matrices of m columns and n rows, which for the special case of m
= n reduces to the multiplication theorem. On the same day (November 30, 1812) that Binet
presented his paper to the Academy, Cauchy also presented one on the subject. (See Cauchy
Binet formula.) In this he used the word determinant in its present sense, summarized and
simplified what was then known on the subject, improved the notation, and gave the
multiplication theorem with a proof more satisfactory than Binet's. With him begins the theory in
its generality.
The next important figure was Jacobi[18] (from 1827). He early used the functional determinant
which Sylvester later called the Jacobian, and in his memoirs in Crelle for 1841 he specially

treats this subject, as well as the class of alternating functions which Sylvester has called
alternants. About the time of Jacobi's last memoirs, Sylvester (1839) and Cayley began their
work.
The study of special forms of determinants has been the natural result of the completion of the
general theory. Axisymmetric determinants have been studied by Lebesgue, Hesse, and
Sylvester; persymmetric determinants by Sylvester and Hankel; circulants by Catalan,
Spottiswoode, Glaisher, and Scott; skew determinants and Pfaffians, in connection with the
theory of orthogonal transformation, by Cayley; continuants by Sylvester; Wronskians (so called
by Muir) by Christoffel and Frobenius; compound determinants by Sylvester, Reiss, and Picquet;
Jacobians and Hessians by Sylvester; and symmetric gauche determinants by Trudi. Of the
textbooks on the subject Spottiswoode's was the first. In America, Hanus (1886), Weld (1893),
and Muir/Metzler (1933) published treatises.

2. Application of Matrices
Area of Triangle
Example:
Find the area of triangle whose vertices are (2, -7), (1, 3), (10, 8).
Solution:
(x1, y1) = (2, -7),(x2, y2) = (1, 3),(x3, y3) = (10, 8)
Area of the triangle
= 12
= 12 [2(3 - 8) + 7(1 - 10) + 1(8 - 30)]
= 12 [-10 - 63 - 22]
= 12 x (- 95) = - 47.5
Since area has to be a positive quantity, it is given by 47.5 sq.units

Example 2
Solve the system of linear equations.
x +2y + 3z = 6
2x + 4y + z = 7
3x + 2y + 9z = 14
Cramer's rule.
Solution: The determinant of coefficients
D=

=2

= 2[(1)(18 - 1) - (1)(18 - 3) + 3(2 - 6)]

= 2[17 - 15 - 12] = -20
D1 =

c1 c1 - (c2 + c3 )
=

D2 =

= D = -20

c3 = c3 - ( c1 + c2 )

Example 3. Homogeneous Equations (Constant = 0)

Consider the homogeneous equations
a1x + b1y + c1z = 0
a2x + b2y + c2z = 0
a3x + b3y + c3z = 0
The homogenous system of equations is always consistent because x = 0, y = 0, z = 0 satisfies all
the equations in the system. This solution is called the trivial solution.

then the system has a non-trivial solution also. In fact, it has an infinite number of solutions and
is said to be dependent.

then the system has only the trivial solution x = 0, y = 0, z = 0.

Example 4. Non Homogenous Equations (solution by the Matrix Method)
Consider the non-homogeneous equations
a1x + b1y + c1z = d1

a2x + b2y + c2z = d2

a3x + b3y + c3z = d3
This can be written as

Refferences:
http://www.shelovesmath.com/algebra/advanced-algebra/matrices-and-solving-systems-withmatrices/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_(mathematics)
http://math.tutorvista.com/algebra/application-of-matrices-and-determinants.html