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The AMATYC Review Fall 2005, Vol.27, No.1 |
Cramer's Rule Revisited Ayoub B. Ayoub |
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Dr. Ayoub is a professor of mathematics at Abington College of the Pennsylvania State University. His interests include number theory, collegiate mathematics and mathematics history. He received The Pennsylvania State University's 1990 George Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching. E-mail: aba2@psu.edu |
| In 1750, the Swiss mathematician Gabriel Cramer published a well-written algebra book entitled Introduction á l'Analyse des Lignes Courbes Algèbriques. In the appendix to this book, Cramer gave, without proof, the rule named after him for solving a linear system of equations using determinants (Kosinki, 2001). Since then several derivations of this rule have appeared (Chadha, 1996; Larson et al., 2004; Shi rm & Adams, 2002). In this article, the author will introduce another proof of Cramer's rule based on the expansion in cofactors of a determinant. | |