give me a example of "If the elements of 3 parallel lines consist of..."

[bhuvaneshnick]

"If the elements of three parallel lines consist of m, n, and p terms, respectively, the determinant can be expressed as the sum of the m*n*p determinants"

Can you give me example of the above statement, please?

 

[stapel]

"If the elements of three parallel lines consist of m, n, and p terms, respectively..."

How does your book define the "elements" of lines, parallel or otherwise? Thank you!

 

[bhuvaneshnick]

How does your book define the "elements" of lines, parallel or otherwise? Thank you!

it mean row or column of matrix

 

[HallsofIvy]

Okay, but I am still not clear what " consist of m, n, and p terms, respectively" means. In order to have a determinant, a matrix must be square so every row or column consists of the same number of terms. I thought perhaps you meant "non-zero" terms but there are easy examples to show that this is not true.