GAUSS ELIMINATION

in linear and multilinear algebra, a process for finding the solutions of a system of simultaneous linear equations by first solving one of the equations for the first variable (in terms of all the others) and then substituting this expression into the remaining equations. The result is a new system in which the number of equations and variables is one less than in the original system. The same procedure is applied to the second variable and continued with the other variables until there remains one equation, in which the only unknown quantity is the last variable. Solving this equation makes it possible to solve either of two earlier equations in which the last two variables were unknown. This process is continued until all of the originally unknown variables have been evaluated.