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NCERT Exemplar · Q52

Q.If the value of a third order determinant is 1212, then the value of the determinant formed by replacing each element by its co-factor will be 144144.

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The key idea is that the determinant of the cofactor matrix equals the square of the original determinant for a square matrix. For a third-order determinant with value 1212, the cofactor determinant is 122=14412^{2} = 144.

The problem asks: if a third-order determinant has value 1212, what is the value of the determinant formed by replacing each element by its cofactor? This is a classic result in determinant theory, and the answer follows directly from a fundamental property relating a matrix and its adjoint.

Let’s understand why this works. For any square matrix AA of order nn, the matrix of cofactors (often denoted CC) has a determinant that is related to det⁡(A)\det(A) by a simple power law. Specifically, if AA is n×nn \times n, then det⁡(cofactor matrix of A)=(det⁡A)n−1\det(\text{cofactor matrix of } A) = (\det A)^{n-1}. For n=3n=3, this becomes (det⁡A)2(\det A)^{2}.

Why? Because the cofactor matrix is intimately linked to the adjoint (adjugate) of AA. The adjoint of AA, written adj(A)\text{adj}(A), is the transpose of the cofactor matrix. A well-known identity is:

A⋅adj(A)=det⁡(A)⋅InA \cdot \text{adj}(A) = \det(A) \cdot I_n

Taking determinants on both sides gives:

det⁡(A)⋅det⁡(adj(A))=(det⁡A)n\det(A) \cdot \det(\text{adj}(A)) = (\det A)^n

Since det⁡(adj(A))=det⁡(cofactor matrix)\det(\text{adj}(A)) = \det(\text{cofactor matrix}) (transpose doesn’t change determinant), we get:

det⁡(cofactor matrix)=(det⁡A)n−1\det(\text{cofactor matrix}) = (\det A)^{n-1}

Now apply this to the given problem.

  1. Identify the order: The determinant is third order, so n=3n = 3. The original determinant value is Δ=12\Delta = 12. …

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