Explained: Matrices
Among the most common tools in electrical engineering and computer science are rectangular grids of numbers known as matrices. The numbers in a matrix can represent data, and they can also represent mathematical equations. In many time-sensitive engineering applications, multiplying matrices can give quick but good approximations of much more complicated calculations.Matrices arose originally as a way to describe systems of linear equations, a type of problem familiar to anyone who took grade-school algebra. “Linear” just means that the variables in the equations don’t have any exponents, so their graphs will always be straight lines.The equation x - 2y = 0, for instance, has an infinite number of solutions for both x and y, which can be depicted as a straight line that passes through the points (0,0), (2,1), (4,2), and so on. But if you combine it with the equation x - y = 1, then there’s only one...