Entering Matrices

Traditionally, matrices are denoted by capital letters, but in Mathematica you will want to use lowercase letters, since capitals are reserved for built-in functions. If you really can t live in a world where matrices are denoted by lowercase letters, you can use uppercase letters provided you do not use those letters that are the names of built-in commands or constants: C, D, E, I, K, N, and O.

To enter a matrix in Mathematica first type the name of your matrix followed by an equal sign. Then select Table/Matrix ? New in the Insert menu. A dialogue box will appear. Select Matrix and enter the correct number of rows and columns, then click OK. A matrix of the appropriate dimensions will appear in a fresh input cell with a placeholder for each entry. Click on the first placeholder and type a value, and then use the key to move to the next entry. Enter the cell when you have finished:

<span class="inlinemediaobject"><a NAME="IMG_888"> href="portalcontent.asp?bkid=31099&image_src=https://images.books24x7.com/bookimages/id_31099/fig347%5F01%5F0%2Ejpg&image_id=888&previd=IMG_888"> target="_parent"><img alt="Image from book"> border="0"> height="110"> id="IMG_888"> src="https://images.books24x7.com/bookimages/id_31099/fig347_01.jpg"> title="Click To expand"> width="244"></a></span>Out[1]= {{2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, {1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1}, {4, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5}, {11, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2}, {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1}}

Look carefully at the output above. Mathematica thinks of a matrix as a list of lists. Each row is enclosed in curly brackets with entries separated by commas, the rows are separated...