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Cramer's Rule Procedures


Consider a system of two equations in two variables

a11x1 + a12x2 = b1
a21x1 + a22x2 = b2

Cramer's rule:
Solution of the system of equations in two unknowns is given by the formulas

x1 = det(D1)/det(D)
x2 = det(D2)/det(D)

where det(D1) is the determinant of matrix D1
b1 a12
b2 a22
det(D2) is the determinant of matrix D2
a11 a12
a21 a22

det(D) is the determinant of matrix D
a11 a12
a21 a22

Zero denumerator
Cramer's rule will fail when det(D)=0. The lines associated with the two equations are parallel in this case. They can be either different (inconsistent system) when det(D1)=det(D2)=0, or identical (dependent system) when numerators are not zero.
Cramer's rule can be also stated as follows:

When a11a22 - a12a21 does not equal 0, then

x1 = b1a22 - b2a12 / a11a22 - a12a21
x2 = b2a11 - b1a21 / a11a22 - a12a21


The determinant of the matrix A
ab
cd
is defined as det(A) = ad-bc

Example:
matrix(A) =
12
34
has the determinant det(A) = (1)(4) - (2)(3) = -2.
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