3.

Basic Properties
e. Products
Theorem. |AB| = |A||B| when A and B are square and of the same order.
Before proving the theorem, we first show that any determinant can be reduced to the
determinant of a triangular matrix, and then consider two useful lemmas.

i. Reduction to triangular form

The determinant of a lower triangular matrix is the product of its diagonal
elements.
ii. Two useful lemmas
 Lemma 1. For square matrices P, Q and X of the same order n
𝑷 𝟎
| | = |𝑷||𝑸| (8)
𝑿 𝑸
Proof. By row operations on the first n rows of the left-hand size of (8)
reduce P to lower triangular form. Then expand the left-hand side by
elements of successive rows for the first n rows. The result is |𝑷||𝑸|, and
so (8) is upheld.
 Lemma 2. For R and S square and of the same order n
𝟎 𝑹
| | = |𝑹| (9)
−𝟏 𝑺
Proof. Expand the left-hand side of (9) by elements of the successive
columns through the −𝟏 to get
𝟎 𝑹
| | = [(−1)𝑛+1+1 (−1)]𝑛 |𝑹| = (−1)𝑛(𝑛+3) |𝑹| = |𝑹|.
−𝟏 𝑺
iii. Determinant of a product.
𝟏 𝑨 𝑨 𝟎 𝟎 𝑨𝑩
Consider the determinant of the matrix product[ ][ ]=[ ],
𝟎 𝟏 −𝟏 𝑩 −𝟏 𝑩
𝟏 𝑨 𝑨 𝟎 𝟎 𝑨𝑩
namely |[ ][ ]| = | |. (10)
𝟎 𝟏 −𝟏 𝑩 −𝟏 𝑩
Therefore |𝑨||𝑩| = |𝑨𝑩| or
|𝑨𝑩| = |𝑨||𝑩|. (𝟏𝟏)
Corollaries
1. |𝑨𝑩| = |𝑩𝑨|(𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒|𝑨||𝑩| = |𝑩||𝑨|)
2. |𝑨𝟐 | = |𝑨|𝟐 (𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑠|𝑨||𝑨|); |𝑨𝑘 | = |𝑨|𝑘 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛.
3. For orthogonal A, |𝑨| = ±1 (𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑨𝑨′ = 𝟏 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑠 |𝑨|2 = 1).
4. For idempotent A, |𝑨| = 0 𝑜𝑟 1 (𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑨2 = 𝑨 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑠 |𝑨|2 = |𝑨|).

4. Elementary Row Operations

Two other elementary operations are (i) interchanging two rows of a matrix, and (ii) multiplying a
row by a scalar. These are represented by matrices

𝑬𝑖𝑗 = 𝑰 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑖 𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑗 𝑡ℎ 𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑑 𝐴𝑛𝑑

𝑹𝑖𝑖 (𝜆) = 𝑰 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑖 𝑡ℎ 𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝜆.

Then 𝑬𝑖𝑗 𝑨 is A with its i th and j th rows interchanged, and 𝑹𝑖𝑖 (𝜆)𝑨 is A with its i th row multiplied by 𝜆.