How to Calculate the Inverse Matrix for 2×2 and 3×3 Matrices

is \(\frac{1}{8}\), the inverse of 20 is \(\frac{1}{20}\) and so on. Therefore, a number multiplied by its inverse will always equal 1. An inverse of a number is denoted with a \(-1\) superscript.

Inverses of Numbers and Matrices

The inverse of a number is its reciprocal. For example, the inverse of 8 is \(\frac{1}{8}\), the inverse of 20 is \(\frac{1}{20}\) and so on. Therefore, a number multiplied by its inverse will always equal 1. An inverse of a number is denoted with a \(-1\) superscript.

$$ x \cdot \frac{1}{x} = x \cdot x^{-1} = x^{-1} \cdot x = 1 $$

The inverse of a matrix \(A\) is another matrix denoted by \(A^{-1}\) and is defined as:

$$ A^{-1}A = AA^{-1} = I $$

Where \(I\) is the identity matrix. Thus, similar to a number and its inverse always equaling 1, a matrix multiplied by its inverse equals the identity.

This post will explore several concepts related to the inverse of a matrix, including linear dependence and the rank of a matrix. Afterward, the method of computing an inverse (if one exists) of a \(2 \times 2\) or \(3 \times 3\) matrix shall be demonstrated. Finding the inverse of a square matrix with \(\geq 4\) columns is computationally intensive and best left to R's built-in linear algebra routines which are built on LINPACK and LAPACK. Here is an excellent resource that lists the linear algebra operations available in R. Here is a good resource on how to compute a 4x4 inverse matrix manually for those interested.

The example inverse matrix problems used in the post are from Jim Hefferon's excellent book Linear Algebra on page 249. I highly recommend the book to those learning more about linear algebra. The book is free to download and comes with many exercises and other features.

Linear Dependence of a Matrix

The following matrix A has three column vectors.

$$A = \begin{bmatrix} 2 & 2 & 3 \\ 1 & -2 & -3 \\ 4 & -2 & - 3 \end{bmatrix}$$

Notice the second column vector is a multiple of the third column. The matrix is therefore linearly dependent as the matrix contains a column vector that is a multiple of another. The matrix is linearly independent when no column vector can be expressed as a multiple of another vector in the matrix.

$$\begin{bmatrix} 2 \\ -2 \\ -2 \end{bmatrix} = \frac{3}{2} \begin{bmatrix} 3 \\ -3 \\ -3 \end{bmatrix}$$

Rank of a Matrix

The rank of a matrix is the maximum number of linearly independent columns or linearly independent rows in the matrix. Therefore, the rank of a \(row \times column\) matrix is the minimum of the two values. For example, the above matrix would have a rank of 1. Inverses only exist for a square \(r \times r\) matrix with rank \(r\), which is called a full rank or nonsingular matrix.

Computing an inverse matrix

Consider a 2x2 matrix:

$$\underset{2 \times 2}{A} = \begin{bmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \end{bmatrix}$$

The \(2 \times 2\) inverse matrix is then:

$$\underset{2 \times 2}{A^{-1}} = \begin{bmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \end{bmatrix}^{-1} = \frac{1}{D} \begin{bmatrix} d & -b \\ -c & a \end{bmatrix}$$

Where \(D = ad - bc\). \(D\) is called the determinant of the matrix.

The \(3 \times 3\) matrix can be defined as:

$$\underset{3 \times 3}{B} = \begin{bmatrix} a & b & c \\ d & e & f \\ g & h & k \end{bmatrix}$$

Then the inverse matrix is:

$$\underset{3 \times 3}{B^{-1}} = \begin{bmatrix} a & b & c \\ d & e & f \\ g & h & k \end{bmatrix}^{-1} = \frac{1}{det(B)} \begin{bmatrix} (ek - fh) & -(bk - ch) & (bf - ce) \\ -(dk - fg) & (ak - cg) & -(af - cd) \\ (dh - eg) & -(ah - bg) & (ae - bd) \end{bmatrix}$$

Where \(det(B)\) is equal to:

$$ det(B) = a(ek - fh) - b(dk -fg) + c(dh - eg) $$

The following function implements a quick and rough routine to find the inverse of a \(2 \times 2\) or \(3 \times 3\) matrix should one exist.

matrix.inverse <- function(mat) {
  A <- as.matrix(mat)

  # If there are more than four columns in the supplied matrix, stop routine
  if ((ncol(A) >= 4) | (nrow(A) >= 4)) {
    stop('Matrix is not 2x2 or 3x3')
  }

  # Stop if matrix is a single column vector
  if (ncol(A) == 1) {
    stop('Matrix is a vector')
  }

  # 2x2 inverse matrix
  if(ncol(A) == 2) {
    # Determinant
    a <- A[1]
    b <- A[3]
    c <- A[2]
    d <- A[4]
    det <- a * d - b * c
    # Check to see if matrix is singular
    if (det == 0) {
      stop('Determinant of matrix equals 0, no inverse exists')
    }
    # Compute inverse matrix elements
    a.inv <- d / det
    b.inv <- -b / det
    c.inv <- -c / det
    d.inv <- a / det
    # Collect the results into a new matrix
    inv.mat <- as.matrix(cbind(c(a.inv,c.inv), c(b.inv,d.inv)))
  }

  # 3x3 inverse matrix
  if (ncol(A) == 3) {
    # Extract the entries from the matrix
    a <- A[1]
    b <- A[4]
    c <- A[7]
    d <- A[2]
    e <- A[5]
    f <- A[8]
    g <- A[3]
    h <- A[6]
    k <- A[9]

    # Compute the determinant and check that it is not 0
    det <- a * (e * k - f * h) - b * (d * k - f * g) + c * (d * h - e * g)
    if (det == 0) {
      stop('Determinant of matrix equals 0, no inverse exists')
    }

    # Using the equations defined above, calculate the inverse matrix entries.
    A.inv <- (e * k - f * h) / det
    B.inv <- -(b * k - c * h) / det
    C.inv <- (b * f - c * e) / det
    D.inv <- -(d * k - f * g) / det
    E.inv <- (a * k - c * g) / det
    F.inv <- -(a * f - c * d) / det
    G.inv <- (d * h - e * g) / det
    H.inv <- -(a * h - b * g) / det
    K.inv <- (a * e - b * d) / det

    # Collect the results into a new matrix
    inv.mat <- as.matrix(cbind(c(A.inv,D.inv,G.inv), c(B.inv,E.inv,H.inv), c(C.inv,F.inv,K.inv)))
  }

return(inv.mat)
}

The results from the above function can be used to verify the definitions and equations of the inverse matrix above in conjunction with R's built-in methods.

A <- as.matrix(cbind(c(3,0),c(1,2)))
A
##      [,1] [,2]
## [1,]    3    1
## [2,]    0    2
A1 <- matrix.inverse(A)
A1
##           [,1]       [,2]
## [1,] 0.3333333 -0.1666667
## [2,] 0.0000000  0.5000000
solve(A)
##           [,1]       [,2]
## [1,] 0.3333333 -0.1666667
## [2,] 0.0000000  0.5000000
B <- as.matrix(cbind(c(1,0,-1), c(1,2,1), c(3,4,0)))
B
##      [,1] [,2] [,3]
## [1,]    1    1    3
## [2,]    0    2    4
## [3,]   -1    1    0
B1 <- matrix.inverse(B)
B1
##      [,1] [,2] [,3]
## [1,]    2 -1.5    1
## [2,]    2 -1.5    2
## [3,]   -1  1.0   -1
solve(B)
##      [,1] [,2] [,3]
## [1,]    2 -1.5    1
## [2,]    2 -1.5    2
## [3,]   -1  1.0   -1

Recall the product of the matrix and its inverse will always equal the identity matrix.

A %*% A1
##      [,1] [,2]
## [1,]    1    0
## [2,]    0    1
B %*% B1
##      [,1] [,2] [,3]
## [1,]    1    0    0
## [2,]    0    1    0
## [3,]    0    0    1

Matrices that are singular or not of full rank will have a determinant of 0, and thus no inverse exists.

C <- as.matrix(cbind(c(2,-1),c(-4,2)))
C
##      [,1] [,2]
## [1,]    2   -4
## [2,]   -1    2
solve(C)
## Error in solve.default(C): Lapack routine dgesv: system is exactly singular: U[2,2] = 0
D <- as.matrix(cbind(c(2,1,4),c(2,-2,-2),c(3,-3,-3)))
D
##      [,1] [,2] [,3]
## [1,]    2    2    3
## [2,]    1   -2   -3
## [3,]    4   -2   -3
solve(D)
## Error in solve.default(D): Lapack routine dgesv: system is exactly singular: U[3,3] = 0

Summary

The inverse matrix was explored by examining several concepts such as linear dependency and the rank of a matrix. The method of calculating an inverse of a \(2 \times 2\) and \(3 \times 3\) matrix (if one exists) was also demonstrated. As stated earlier, finding an inverse matrix is best left to a computer, especially when dealing with matrices of \(4 \times 4\) or above.

References

Hefferon, J. (n.d.). Linear Algebra

Inverse matrix of 2x2 matrix, 3x3 matrix, 4x4 matrix. Retrieved August 10, 2016, from http://www.cg.info.hiroshima-cu.ac.jp/~miyazaki/knowledge/teche23.html

Kutner, M. H., Nachtsheim, C. J., Neter, J., Li, W., & Wasserman, W. (2004). Applied linear statistical models (5th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

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