SOLUTION: Evaluate the determinant: |3 3 4| |6 1 2| |3 2 2|

You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Solved by pluggable solver: Finding the Determinant of a 3x3 Matrix

If you have the general 3x3 matrix: the determinant is: Which further breaks down to: Note: , and are determinants themselves. If you need help finding the determinant of 2x2 matrices (which is required to find the determinant of 3x3 matrices), check out this solver -------------------------------------------------------------- From the matrix , we can see that , , , , , , , , and Start with the general 3x3 determinant. Plug in the given values (see above) Multiply Subtract Multiply Combine like terms. ====================================================================== Answer: So , which means that the determinant of the matrix is

You can put this solution on YOUR website!
A neat way of doing this is as follows: write the first two columns again on the right and draw a line down the first three forward diagonals:

3 3 4 3 3
 \ \ \
6 1 2 6 1
   \ \ \
3 2 2 3 2

Multiply down each diagonal and add them up: 6 + 18 + 48 = 72
Now do the same with the last three backward diagonals:

3 3 4 3 3
   / / /
6 1 2 6 1
 / / /
3 2 2 3 2

You get 12 + 12 + 36 = 60
The determinant is the first (72) minus the second (60), giving 12.
For a square matrix of size n, you repeat the first (n-1) columns and use the first and last n diagonals.