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Remember the commutative property of addition? As a reminder, it means that, given real numbers and
There is a similar commutative property when we are working with matrices! The Commutative Property of Matrix Addition states that, given matrices and
(Important note: it is extremely important that these matrices are both If and are not the same size, you cannot add them.)
Let's look at a quick example! Consider the matrices and
Then:
So, Try it out the commutative property with matrices of your own!
Remember the associative property of addition? As a reminder, it means that, given real numbers and
There is a similar associative property when we are working with matrix addition. The Associative Property of Matrix Addition states that, given matrices and
(Note: again, it is important that these matrices are all the same size, or else we cannot add them.)
Time for an example! Consider the matrices and
Then:
So, Try it out the associative property with matrices of your own!
The Identity Property of Matrix Addition states that, given an matrix there exists an matrix such that:
Here, is the zero matrix! Let's do an example to clarify.
Consider the matrix
If we let then
Basically, when you add a matrix and a zero matrix of the same size, you get back your original matrix!
The Inverse Property of Matrix Addition states that, given an matrix there exists a unique matrix such that: where is the zero matrix.
Here's an example of how this works. Consider the matrix
Thus, and:
In other words, to get the zero matrix, you can add any matrix with its negative counterpart!


