Applying Determinants

Determinants can be used to calculate areas of figures.

The area of a triangle equals one-half the value of a 3x3 determinant.

One application of matrices is finding the area of a triangle.

Compare the general statement for setting up the matrix with

the array for this example. Notice how the coordinates for
each vertex are placed in its own row with 1 being the term
in the third column on every row.

Remember your sign chart as you add your products. Then

use your process for evaluating the determinant of a matrix.
In this example, the arithmetic will be easy to do because
there are so many zeros.

In this case, the area will be:

{0[(1x1) (1x0)] 0[(0x1) (1x3)] + 1[(0x0) (1x3)]} =
(0 0 + 3) = (3).
Area is always positive, so use the absolute value.

The area of the triangle is (3) = 3/2.

This is an easy area to check because the triangle is half of

the rectangle that is 3 units long and 1 unit wide. Therefore,
the area of the triangle will be (3)(1) = 3/2. That matches
what you found using determinants.

Here is another example.

Once again, the coordinates are placed in the matrix.

The area of the triangle equals:

{1[(0x1) (1x1)] 1[(-1x1) (1x2)] + 1[(-1x1)
(0x2)]}. This expression simplifies as shown in the graphic.
It results in an area of 5/2.

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