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arXiv · 2508.11642

Sarrus' Quilt: A Novel Way to Compute Determinants

Jorge Garcia·Jasmine Torres·Thomas Crawford·Miles Obrien·Alexander D. Bonilla
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Abstract

After analyzing the 4x4 determinant of a matrix, a shortcut was obtained to find such a determinant. Similarly to the Sarrus method for 2x2 or 3x3 determinants, the method consists of laying 19 columns of size 4 each and adding and subtracting some diagonal multiplications. There is a symmetry in the arrangement of these columns. A very symmetric pattern emerged for the 5x5 determinant which was also found. A cyclic pattern was observed for the diagonals of larger determinants when applying this method.

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Jorge Garcia, Jasmine Torres, Thomas Crawford, Miles Obrien, Alexander D. Bonilla. 2025-07-31. Sarrus' Quilt: A Novel Way to Compute Determinants. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.11642

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