Find the determinant using row reduction method

Question

A= [ 2 -1 4 3 ]
[ 2 1 0 1 ]
[ 3 -4 1 2 ]
[ 1 2 3 -1]

Answer 1

One way to do this is to enter the 4 by 4 matrix into a Graphing Calculator and tell it to evaluate the determinant.

 

Another way (manual) is to expand by minors. I would recommend expanding along row 3 (because one of the elements in that row is zero and two others are 1, making calculations simpler.  All you have to do is to follow procedures, very carefully...it's a lot of error-prone calculations, so the best way is by calculator.