Matrix Division?

1. Jun 29, 2008

magda3227

As far as I know, matrices cannot be divided, you have to multiply one matrix by the inverse of the other...I believe.

However, I am converting MatLab code into ANSI C and MatLab apparently divides two matrices. An example is the following...

>>A=[1.5708 1.5708];
B=[0.4937 0.7652];
A/B

ans =

2.3846

I have no idea how MatLab generated this answer. I try to find the inverse of the second matrix, but since it is a non-square matrix, MatLab denies my request. Can anyone aid me in figuring out how such an answer was calculated? Thank you in advance.

2. Jun 29, 2008

cristo

Staff Emeritus
3. Jun 29, 2008

magda3227

I looked through that as well, but it says that it is equal to A*inverse(B)...but like I said, I cannot calculate the inverse of B. MatLab itself won't do it for me if I write the command line, so I don't see how it completes the matrix division calculation without finding the inverse of B.

It also says that it is equivalent to A/B = (B'\A')'. But again, You have to divide two matrices, only here, it is the conjugate transposes of the two. So even if I find the conj. transposes of the two (which will basically move the rows into columns), I still cannot find out how they got 2.3846 as an answer.

4. Jun 29, 2008

cristo

Staff Emeritus
Presumably you need to decipher:
It's too late here for me to get my head around that, but someone else will probably come along who can.

5. Jun 30, 2008

maze

6. Jun 30, 2008

magda3227

THANKS!

I had a look at this before, but I didn't really understand it, so I looked for simpler explanations. It took my stupid self about 30 minutes to fully comprehend what it was saying. I really had to read slowly. lol. It is very brief, but rightfully so. Not much more explaining needed once you get it. Thanks a bunch.