Operators > Algebra Operators > Absolute Value/Determinant Operator
  
Absolute Value/Determinant Operator
Operator
Description
Returns the absolute value of a scalar or the magnitude of a complex number.
This operator can also return the norm of a column vector or a square matrix.
Operands
x is a scalar, complex number, a column vector, or a square matrix.
Additional Information
The column vector or the square matrix can be dimensionless or contain compatible units.
If the column vector or the square matrix contains compatible units, then the unit of the resulting determinant is dependent on the worksheet’s Unit System.
To calculate the magnitude of each element in an array, select the array and insert the vectorize operator. Otherwise, the square root of the sum of the squared magnitudes of the array elements is returned.
To compute the determinant of a matrix, PTC Mathcad first performs an LU factorization of the matrix. The BLAS/LAPACK libraries from Intel are used.