6.1. Inverse of a 2 x 2 matrix

Inverse of a 2 x 2 matrix

  • We can use the following formula to calculate the determinant of a 2 × 2 matrix.

LaTeX in HTML
\[\Large A = \begin{bmatrix} \color{red}{a} & \color{green}{b} \\ \color{orange}{c} & \color{purple}{d} \end{bmatrix} \]
\[\Large A^{-1} = \frac{1}{det(A)} \begin{bmatrix} \color{purple}{d} & \color{green}{-b} \\ \color{orange}{-c} & \color{red}{a} \end{bmatrix} \]
  • Let’s find the inverse matrix of a 2 × 2 matrix.

A Matrix
\[\Large A = \begin{bmatrix} 2 & 3 \\ 5 & 7 \\ \end{bmatrix} \]
1. Find the determinant of the matrix.

LaTeX in HTML
\[\Large A = \begin{bmatrix} \color{red}{2} & \color{green}{3} \\ \color{orange}{5} & \color{purple}{7} \end{bmatrix} \]
\[\Large det(A) = \textcolor{red}{2} × \textcolor{purple}{7~} – \textcolor{green}{~3} × \textcolor{orange}{5} \] \[\Large det(A) = -1 \]

2. Calculate the inverse matrix
  • Use the given formula to calculate the inverse matrix.
  • In here multiply the original matrix by 1/det(A) to calculate the inverse matrix.
  • This multiplication process is known as scalar multiplication, and to learn more about scalar multiplication refer Matrix multiplication.
LaTeX in HTML
\[\Large A^{-1} = \frac{1}{-1} \begin{bmatrix} \color{purple}{7} & \color{green}{-3} \\ \color{orange}{-5} & \color{red}{2} \end{bmatrix} \]
\[\Large A^{-1} = \begin{bmatrix} \color{purple}{-\frac{7}{1}} & \color{green}{\frac{3}{1}} \\ \color{orange}{\frac{5}{1}} & \color{red}{-\frac{2}{1}} \end{bmatrix} \]
\[\Large \mathbf{A^{-1} = } \begin{bmatrix} \mathbf{\color{purple}{-7}} & \mathbf{\color{green}{3}} \\ \mathbf{\color{orange}{5}} & \mathbf{\color{red}{-2}} \end{bmatrix} \]

The following formula can be used to calculate the inverse of a 2 × 2 matrix.

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