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NCERT Exemplar · Q80

Q.Matrices of different order can not be subtracted.

Telangana TsbieShort· 3mImportance★★★★★
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The statement is true: matrix subtraction is defined only for matrices of the same order, so matrices of different order cannot be subtracted.

Why the order must match

Matrix subtraction is defined entry by entry. If AA and BB are matrices, their difference is formed by subtracting each element of BB from the element of AA in the same position:

(A−B)ij=aij−bij.(A - B)_{ij} = a_{ij} - b_{ij}.

For this rule to make sense, every position (i,j)(i,j) in AA must have a matching position (i,j)(i,j) in BB. That happens only when the two matrices have the same number of rows and the same number of columns — that is, the same order.

What goes wrong when the orders differ

Suppose AA has order m×nm \times n and BB has order p×qp \times q with m≠pm \neq p or n≠qn \neq q. Then there is at least one position that exists in one matrix but not in the other, so the entry-wise subtraction aij−bija_{ij} - b_{ij} has no partner term to compute. The operation is therefore not defined. …

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