Talk:Determinant

Yeah, I'm going to retool this article. Doesn't ever give the way a matrix is calculated (cases listed are special cases)

The determinant is equal to the product of the eigenvalues of a matrix.

That isn't true, espcecially as in the definition of eigenvalue, you are talking only about real vector spaces. Example:

Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 2 \\ 0 & -2 & 0 \end{pmatrix}} .

Eigenvalues: 1
Determinant: 4

FrankC aka ComedyFan 14:29, 2 May 2010 (EDT)

The other problem:

Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \begin{pmatrix} 2 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 2 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 2 \\ \end{pmatrix}}

Eigenvalues: 2
Determinant: 8

The algebraic multiplicity has to be taken into account, the simple sentence the determinant is equal to the product of the eigenvalues of a matrix was misleading. FrankC aka ComedyFan 08:49, 5 May 2010 (EDT)