Is there a way to use latex to make a matrix? And for that matter a determinant?

 

Thank you

inside the latex math environment

 

\left( \begin{array}{ccc} entry & entry &entry \\ entry & entry &entry \\ \end{array} \right)

 

would make a 3 column matrix with entries centred on in the column, Vary the 3 c's to make more columns. separate entries with & and \\ is a newline. ie the above would make a 2 row matrix. the command \left<symbol> makes a left bracket as big as the matrix. you can try varying <symbol>, to say, | to get a determinant.

inside the latex math environment

 

\left( \begin{array}{ccc} entry & entry &entry \\ entry & entry &entry \\ \end{array} \right)

 

would make a 3 column matrix with entries centred on in the column' date=' Vary the 3 c's to make more columns. separate entries with & and \\ is a newline. ie the above would make a 2 row matrix. the command \left<symbol> makes a left bracket as big as the matrix. you can try varying <symbol>, to say, | to get a determinant.[/quote']

 

Here goes...

 

[math] A = \left( \begin{array}{cccc}

A_{11} \ A_{12} \ A_{13} \ A_{14}\\

A_{21} \ A_{22} \ A_{23} \ A_{24}\\

A_{31} \ A_{32} \ A_{33} \ A_{34}\\

\end{array} \right)

[/math]

 

[math] A \times B = \left| \begin{array}{ccc}

\hat i \ \ \ \hat j \ \ \ \hat k \ \ \\

A_x \ A_y \ A_z \ \\

B_x \ B_y \ B_z \ \\

\end{array} \right|

[/math]

 

Thank you Matt, I had a little trouble trying to center i^ j^ k^ in their respective colums, I know the backslash inserts a space, is there a better way to do that?

As Matt said

separate entries with &

and you will find that the entries will be aligned - in this case in the centre because of the c in \begin{array}{cccc}

 

Unfortunately there's a bug in the [math]\LaTeX[/math] implementation on the forum so it shows wrongly in

[math]A \times B = \left| \begin{array}{ccc}

\hat i & \hat j & \hat k \\

A_x & A_y & A_z \\

B_x & B_y & B_z \\

\end{array} \right|

[/math]

but in normal [math]\LaTeX[/math] use it will do what you wanted.