Find x, y, and z so that the following is true:
a = ( 8.6, 7.4, 3.9 ) b = ( 4.2, 2.2, -3.0 ) c = ( x, y, z ) a + b + c = 0
a + b + c = ( 12.8, 9.6, 0.9 ) + (x, y, z) = ( 12.8+x, 9.6+y, 0.9+z ) = (0, 0, 0)
So it must be that:
12.8 + x = 0; x = -12.8 9.6 + y = 0; y = -9.6 0.9 + z = 0; z = -0.9
The problem was: find the elements of c when
a + b + c = 0
If you didn't know they were matrices, you might have been tempted to work this using real number algebra:
a + b + c = 0 a + b = -c + 0 (a + b) = -c -(a + b) = c
In fact, this works. As long as every matrix is of the same type, and the operations are only "+" or "-", you can pretend that you are doing ordinary algebra. Notice that the last equations means "add a with b, then negate the result to get c."
To see this, look at just the first elements of the matrices:
( a0, ... ) + ( b0, ... ) + ( c0, ... ) = ( 0, ...) ( a0, ... ) + ( b0, ... ) = -( c0, ... ) + ( 0, ...) ( a0, ... ) + ( b0, ... ) = -( c0, ... ) ( a0 + b0, ... ) = -( c0, ... ) -( a0 + b0, ... ) = ( c0, ... ) -( a0 + b0) = c0
If this is too ugly for you this early in the morning, mentally erase some of the junk:
a0 + b0 + c0 = 0 a0 + b0 = -c0 + 0 a0 + b0 = -c0 a0 + b0 = -c0 -( a0 + b0) = c0
Of course the other elements follow the same pattern so the result is true for the matrix as a whole.