ABSTRACT
In this chapter we define the basic operations of matrix algebra. We will see that these operations obey most —but not all-of the laws of ordi nary algebra. That’s the whole idea. Matrix notation enables us to write complicated systems of linear equations, including differential equations, in a compact form. Matrix notations, suitably modified to handle the exi gencies of the computer keyboard, provide the ideal way of instructing the computer to solve complicated problems. At the end of this chapter we learn how to use MINIMAT to instruct the computer to perform matrix operations.
