Introduction to Matrices
What is a matrix?
- A matrix is a rectangular grid (array) of elements (numbers or letters) arranged in rows and columns
- They are used a lot in computer / data science
- The plural of "matrix" is "matrices"
- The order of a matrix is its "number of rows" × "number of columns"
- a 2 × 1 matrix is
- this is also called a column matrix or a column vector
- a 2 × 2 matrix is
- this is called a square matrix
- a 2 × 1 matrix is
- A bold capital letter is often used to represent a matrix
- ,
- 2D coordinates can be written in a column matrix
- The point (3, 5) is
How do I multiply a matrix by a scalar?
- To multiply any matrix by a scalar (a number), multiply each element by that scalar
- If then
- Lower case letters often refer to scalar multiples
- is the matrix multiplied by the scalar