MA 265 Chapter 3 Sections 3.1-3.2
By: Daniel Ford
What are determinants?
To understand determinants, you must first know about permutations.
If D = {1, 2,....,n} a set of integers from 1 to n in ascending order, then a permutation is the rearrangement of an integer in D.
Example:
If D = {6, 7, 8, 9}, then 7689 would be a permutation of D. This corresponds to the function f: D→ D defined by
{{f(1) = 6 f(2) = 7 f(3) = 8 f(4) = 9}}
