The teaching of determinants

• Main Author: Antejos, Lydia U.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1974
• Subjects: Determinants; Determinants > Study and teaching; Algebra; Mathematics
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/325
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study provides adequate and general methods of teaching determinants such as: 1. using the definition of a determinant of order N as a guide in expanding determinants of any order, together with the cofactor method and Laplace's method 2. proving the properties of determinants by using NxN determinants and 3. presenting determinants as part of a square matrix. The determinants and their properties were presented in this study through the following six lessons: lesson I: The square matrix and its determinant lesson II: The cofactor method in expanding determinants lesson III : Laplace's method of expanding determinants lesson IV: The properties of determinants lesson V: The properties of determinants (continued) and, Lesson VI: Solution of linear equations by the use of determinants. It was recommended that these lessons be given to senior high school students as well as to first year college students as a prerequisite to economics, vector geometry, and linear algebra. Six weeks would be an ideal duration for the study, or until such a time when the student can aptly utilize this mathematical facility in solving problems involving systems of linear equations.