Question 197339
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There is a method to do this that involves breaking down the matrix to 4 3X3 matrices, and then breaking down each of those into 3 2X2 matrices, yada, yada, yada.  Big pain in the sit-down.


Go to <u>http://people.richland.edu/james/lecture/m116/matrices/determinant.html</u>  if you are really interested in the manual method. 


Put your numbers into a square array in Excel, one number per cell.  Then go find an empty cell and type, assuming you put your numbers in cells A1 through D4:


=MDETERM(A1:D4)


Then hit the enter key.  You will get 256.


John
*[tex \LARGE e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0]
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