Suppose your friend asked you to expand a $3 \times 3$ determinant. You might think about which method to use: row or column? This is where the concept of expansion of determinants using minors and cofactors becomes important. In NCERT Class 12 Maths Chapter 4 - Determinants, Exercise 4.3 explains how to expand a determinant of order 3 by choosing any row or column. Minor of an element $a_{i j}$ of a determinant is the determinant obtained by deleting its $ i$th row and $ j$th column in which element $a_{i j}$ lies. Minor of an element $a_{i j}$ is denoted by $\mathrm{M}_{i j}$. Cofactor of an element $a_{i j}$, denoted by $\mathrm{A}_{i j}$ is defined by $\mathrm{A}_{i j}=(-1)^{i+j} \mathrm{M}_{i j}$, where $\mathrm{M}_{i j}$ is minor of $a_{i j}$. This article on the NCERT Solutions for Exercise 4.3 Class 12 Maths Chapter 4 offers clear and step-by-step solutions for the exercise problems to help the students understand the method and logic behind it. For syllabus, notes, and PDF, refer to this link: NCERT.
There were adequate internal tests in the long answer section. This allowed students to choose the questions they were most confident about and attempt the question paper strategically.
Question 1 (i) Write Minors and Cofactors of the elements of following determinants:
$\small \begin{vmatrix}2 &-4 \\0 &3 \end{vmatrix}$
Answer:
GIven determinant: $\begin{vmatrix}2 &-4 \\0 &3 \end{vmatrix}$
Minor of element $a_{ij}$ is $M_{ij}$.
Therefore we have
$M_{11}$ = minor of element $a_{11}$ = 3
$M_{12}$ = minor of element $a_{12}$ = 0
$M_{21}$ = minor of element $a_{21}$ = -4
$M_{22}$ = minor of element $a_{22}$ = 2
and finding cofactors of $a_{ij}$ is $A_{ij}$ = $(-1)^{i+j}M_{ij}$.
Therefore, we have:
$A_{11} = (-1)^{1+1}M_{11} = (-1)^2(3) = 3$
$A_{12} = (-1)^{1+2}M_{12} = (-1)^3(0) = 0$
$A_{21} = (-1)^{2+1}M_{21} = (-1)^3(-4) = 4$
$A_{22} = (-1)^{2+2}M_{22} = (-1)^4(2) = 2$
Question 1 (ii) Write Minors and Cofactors of the elements of following determinants:
$\small \begin{vmatrix} a &c \\ b &d \end{vmatrix}$
Answer:
GIven determinant: $\begin{vmatrix} a &c \\ b &d \end{vmatrix}$
Minor of element $a_{ij}$ is $M_{ij}$.
Therefore we have
$M_{11}$ = minor of element $a_{11}$ = d
$M_{12}$ = minor of element $a_{12}$ = b
$M_{21}$ = minor of element $a_{21}$ = c
$M_{22}$ = minor of element $a_{22}$ = a
and finding cofactors of $a_{ij}$ is $A_{ij}$ = $(-1)^{i+j}M_{ij}$.
Therefore, we have:
$A_{11} = (-1)^{1+1}M_{11} = (-1)^2(d) = d$
$A_{12} = (-1)^{1+2}M_{12} = (-1)^3(b) = -b$
$A_{21} = (-1)^{2+1}M_{21} = (-1)^3(c) = -c$
$A_{22} = (-1)^{2+2}M_{22} = (-1)^4(a) = a$
Question 2 (i) Write Minors and Cofactors of the elements of following determinants:
$\small \begin{vmatrix} 1 & 0 &0 \\ 0 &1 &0 \\ 0 &0 &1 \end{vmatrix}$
Answer:
Given determinant : $\begin{vmatrix} 1 & 0 &0 \\ 0 &1 &0 \\ 0 &0 &1 \end{vmatrix}$
Finding Minors: by the definition,
$M_{11} =$ minor of $a_{11} = \begin{vmatrix} 1 &0 \\ 0 &1 \end{vmatrix} = 1$ $M_{12} =$ minor of $a_{12} = \begin{vmatrix} 0 &0 \\ 0 &1 \end{vmatrix} = 0$
$M_{13} =$ minor of $a_{13} = \begin{vmatrix} 0 &1 \\ 0 &0 \end{vmatrix} = 0$ $M_{21} =$ minor of $a_{21} = \begin{vmatrix} 0 &0 \\ 0 &1 \end{vmatrix} = 0$
$M_{22} =$ minor of $a_{22} = \begin{vmatrix} 1 &0 \\ 0 &1 \end{vmatrix} = 1$ $M_{23} =$ minor of $a_{23} = \begin{vmatrix} 1 &0 \\ 0 &0 \end{vmatrix} = 0$
$M_{31} =$ minor of $a_{31} = \begin{vmatrix} 0 &0 \\ 1 &0 \end{vmatrix} = 0$ $M_{32} =$ minor of $a_{32} = \begin{vmatrix} 1 &0 \\ 0 &0 \end{vmatrix} = 0$
$M_{33} =$ minor of $a_{33} = \begin{vmatrix} 1 &0 \\ 0 &1 \end{vmatrix} = 1$
Finding the cofactors:
$A_{11}=$ cofactor of $a_{11} = (-1)^{1+1}M_{11} = 1$
$A_{12}=$ cofactor of $a_{12} = (-1)^{1+2}M_{12} = 0$
$A_{13}=$ cofactor of $a_{13} = (-1)^{1+3}M_{13} = 0$
$A_{21}=$ cofactor of $a_{21} = (-1)^{2+1}M_{21} = 0$
$A_{22}=$ cofactor of $a_{22} = (-1)^{2+2}M_{22} = 1$
$A_{23}=$ cofactor of $a_{23} = (-1)^{2+3}M_{23} = 0$
$A_{31}=$ cofactor of $a_{31} = (-1)^{3+1}M_{31} = 0$
$A_{32}=$ cofactor of $a_{32} = (-1)^{3+2}M_{32} = 0$
$A_{33}=$ cofactor of $a_{33} = (-1)^{3+3}M_{33} = 1$.
Question:2(ii) Write Minors and Cofactors of the elements of following determinants:
$\small \begin{vmatrix} 1 &0 &4 \\ 3 & 5 &-1 \\ 0 &1 &2 \end{vmatrix}$
Answer:
Given determinant : $\begin{vmatrix} 1 &0 &4 \\ 3 & 5 &-1 \\ 0 &1 &2 \end{vmatrix}$
Finding Minors: by the definition,
$M_{11} =$ minor of $a_{11} = \begin{vmatrix} 5 &-1 \\ 1 &2 \end{vmatrix} = 11$ $M_{12} =$ minor of $a_{12} = \begin{vmatrix} 3 &-1 \\ 0 &2 \end{vmatrix} = 6$
$M_{13} =$ minor of $a_{13} = \begin{vmatrix} 3 &5 \\ 0 &1 \end{vmatrix} = 3$ $M_{21} =$ minor of $a_{21} = \begin{vmatrix} 0 &4 \\ 1 &2 \end{vmatrix} = -4$
$M_{22} =$ minor of $a_{22} = \begin{vmatrix} 1 &4 \\ 0 &2 \end{vmatrix} = 2$ $M_{23} =$ minor of $a_{23} = \begin{vmatrix} 1 &0 \\ 0 &1 \end{vmatrix} = 1$
$M_{31} =$ minor of $a_{31} = \begin{vmatrix} 0 &4 \\ 5 &-1 \end{vmatrix} = -20$
$M_{32} =$ minor of $a_{32} = \begin{vmatrix} 1 &4 \\ 3 &-1 \end{vmatrix} = -1-12=-13$
$M_{33} =$ minor of $a_{33} = \begin{vmatrix} 1 &0 \\ 3 &5 \end{vmatrix} = 5$
Finding the cofactors:
$A_{11}=$ cofactor of $a_{11} = (-1)^{1+1}M_{11} = 11$
$A_{12}=$ cofactor of $a_{12} = (-1)^{1+2}M_{12} = -6$
$A_{13}=$ cofactor of $a_{13} = (-1)^{1+3}M_{13} = 3$
$A_{21}=$ cofactor of $a_{21} = (-1)^{2+1}M_{21} = 4$
$A_{22}=$ cofactor of $a_{22} = (-1)^{2+2}M_{22} = 2$
$A_{23}=$ cofactor of $a_{23} = (-1)^{2+3}M_{23} = -1$
$A_{31}=$ cofactor of $a_{31} = (-1)^{3+1}M_{31} = -20$
$A_{32}=$ cofactor of $a_{32} = (-1)^{3+2}M_{32} = 13$
$A_{33}=$ cofactor of $a_{33} = (-1)^{3+3}M_{33} = 5$.
Answer:
Given determinant : $\small \Delta =\begin{vmatrix} 5 &3 &8 \\ 2 & 0 & 1\\ 1 &2 &3 \end{vmatrix}$
First finding Minors of the second rows by the definition,
$M_{21} =$ minor of $a_{21} = \begin{vmatrix} 3 &8 \\ 2 &3 \end{vmatrix} =9-16 = -7$
$M_{22} =$ minor of $a_{22} = \begin{vmatrix} 5 &8 \\ 1 &3 \end{vmatrix} = 15-8=7$
$M_{23} =$ minor of $a_{23} = \begin{vmatrix} 5 &3 \\ 1 &2 \end{vmatrix} = 10-3 =7$
Finding the Cofactors of the second row:
$A_{21}=$ Cofactor of $a_{21} = (-1)^{2+1}M_{21} = 7$
$A_{22}=$ Cofactor of $a_{22} = (-1)^{2+2}M_{22} = 7$
$A_{23}=$ Cofactor of $a_{23} = (-1)^{2+3}M_{23} = -7$
Therefore we can calculate $\triangle$ by sum of the product of the elements of the second row with their corresponding cofactors.
Therefore we have,
$\triangle = a_{21}A_{21} + a_{22}A_{22} + a_{23}A_{23} = 2(7) +0(7) +1(-7) =14-7=7$
Answer:
Given determinant : $\small \Delta =\begin{vmatrix} 1 &x &yz \\ 1 &y &zx \\ 1 &z &xy \end{vmatrix}$
First finding Minors of the third column by the definition,
$M_{13} =$ minor of $a_{13} = \begin{vmatrix} 1 &y \\ 1 &z \end{vmatrix} =z-y$
$M_{23} =$ minor of $a_{23} = \begin{vmatrix} 1 &x \\ 1 &z \end{vmatrix} = z-x$
$M_{33} =$ minor of $a_{33} = \begin{vmatrix} 1 &x \\ 1 &y \end{vmatrix} =y-x$
Finding the Cofactors of the second row:
$A_{13}=$ Cofactor of $a_{13} = (-1)^{1+3}M_{13} = z-y$
$A_{23}=$ Cofactor of $a_{23} = (-1)^{2+3}M_{23} = x-z$
$A_{33}=$ Cofactor of $a_{33} = (-1)^{3+3}M_{33} = y-x$
Therefore we can calculate $\triangle$ by sum of the product of the elements of the third column with their corresponding cofactors.
Therefore we have,
$\triangle = a_{13}A_{13} + a_{23}A_{23} + a_{33}A_{33}$
$= (z-y)yz + (x-z)zx +(y-x)xy$
$=yz^2-y^2z + zx^2-xz^2 + xy^2-x^2y$
$=z(x^2-y^2) + z^2(y-x) +xy(y-x)$
$= (x-y) \left [ zx+zy-z^2-xy \right ]$
$=(x-y)\left [ z(x-z) +y(z-x) \right ]$
$= (x-y)(z-x)[-z+y]$
$= (x-y)(y-z)(z-x)$
Thus, we have value of $\triangle = (x-y)(y-z)(z-x)$.
Question 5: If $\Delta = \begin{vmatrix} a_{11} & a_{12} & a_{13} \\ a_{21} & a_{22} & a_{23} \\ a_{31} & a_{32} & a_{33} \end{vmatrix}$ and $A_{ij}$ is the cofactor of $a_{ij}$, then the value of $\Delta$ is given by:
(A) $a_{11}A_{31} + a_{12}A_{32} + a_{13}A_{33}$
(B) $a_{11}A_{11} + a_{12}A_{21} + a_{13}A_{31}$
(C) $a_{21}A_{11} + a_{22}A_{12} + a_{23}A_{13}$
(D) $a_{11}A_{11} + a_{21}A_{21} + a_{31}A_{31}$
Answer: (D) $a_{11}A_{11} + a_{21}A_{21} + a_{31}A_{31}$
By the definition itself, $\Delta$ is equal to the sum of the products of the elements of any row or column with their corresponding cofactors.
Also read,
Here are the main topics covered in NCERT Class 12 Chapter 4, Determinants: Exercise 4.3.
1. Determinant of Order 3 Using Expansion: A $3 \times 3$ determinant is expanded along a row or column using the formula:
$|A|=a_{11}\left(a_{22} a_{33}-a_{32} a_{23}\right)-a_{12}\left(a_{21} a_{33}-a_{31} a_{23}\right)+a_{13}\left(a_{21} a_{32}-a_{31} a_{22}\right)$
2. Minor of an Element: The minor of an element is the determinant of the $2 \times 2$ matrix that remains after deleting the row and column of that element.
3. Cofactor of an Element: The cofactor is the minor multiplied by $(-1)^{i+j}$, where $i$ is the row number and $j$ is the column number.
4. Expansion Along Row or Column: The determinant can be expanded using any row or column by multiplying each element by its corresponding cofactor and summing the results.
Also, read,
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