Interactive · 2 questions
Subtracting Matrices
The in subtracting matrices together is that they must have the same dimensions. This means that the matrices must be the same size. Look at the row and column.
Take a look at what we mean by that:
Do the two matrices above have the same dimensions?
Consider the two matrices above. Can we subtract them?
The is that matrices are subtracted entry-by-entry. This means that to subtract two matrices from each other, you need to subtract the numbers in each matrix that are in the same position. These numbers are called entries.
Because we are performing subtraction, we have to pay attention to the order of our matrices. Subtracting the first matrix from the second will NOT produce the same results as subtracting the second matrix from the first.
Let's look at an example:
Remember, because this is subtraction, the order in which we subtract matters. For example, we need to do to get the top left entry in our new matrix. We cannot do , since this would give us a different answer.

