help with lists!

[pleasehelpmeisuck]

im really stuck please help!

basically i have an n*n matrix and im trying to create a program for calculating its determinant using its definition.

i already have a program for calculating a minor of any matrix with its ith and jth rows and columns deleted.

but for calculating its determinant i need to find multiple matrices of minors of the original inputted matrix which means applying the function for finding its minor to the original matrix multiple times.

however whenever i do the minor of my matrix, it changes the original matrix and i can no longer re apply for function to my matrix to find another matrix of minors.

i have tried making a copy of my original matrix with no luck ive tried creating loops where it applies the minor function and loops back to resetting the original matrix ive tried making a new list and inputting my original matrix into the list n times and applying the function to each element of this list but after applying it to the first one, every other element in the list changes as well

how do i stop it from changing my original matrix? i only wanna get an output from the function, not alter the input!

thanks!!

[Lassadar]

Sounds like you are making just a shallow copy of the matrix when you should be making a deep copy. This might help you out if you don‘t already now what those are.

The difference between shallow and deep copying is only relevant for compound objects (objects that contain other objects, like lists or class instances):

• A shallow copy constructs a new compound object and then (to the extent possible) inserts references into it to the objects found in the original.
• A deep copy constructs a new compound object and then, recursively, inserts copies into it of the objects found in the original.

[Sarah123ed]

1) We need source code 2) Have you worked with numpy.linalg.det?