Book Description

The Cholesky square root algorithm used in the solution of linear equations with a positive definite matrix of coefficients is developed by elementary matrix algebra, independent of the Gaussian elimination from which it was originally derived. The Cholesky factorization leads to a simple inversion procedure for the given matrix. A simple transformation makes the inversion applicable to nonsymmetric matrices. The least squares hypothesis is shown to be the simplest and most general unique solution of a system of linear equations with a nonsquare matrix of coefficients. The method of proof is extended to develop the Gaussian elimination algorithm in a readily comprehensible procedure.