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siminl

Should the parallelepiped have a parallelogram as the base?

ananyas

I think since each face of the parallelepiped is spanned by two vectors, each face should be a parallelogram.

Also, there is a typo on the slide: parallelpiped should be parallelepiped.

ericchan

What does a determinant represent at higher dimensions?

adam

I believe the determinant represents the same thing (volume) at any dimension. Of course it's much harder to visualize at higher dimensions, thus the 3D example.

keenan

@siminl Yes; the fact that in this picture they don't look like parallelograms is purely a result of perspective distortion (which, in fact, we will learn about in our class! :-)). But these diagrams were actually generated by creating a 3D model with parallelograms on each side.

keenan

@ananyas Thanks for catching the typo; fixed for next year! ;-)

keenan

@ericchan Yes, @adam is totally right: the determinant gives you the volume in any dimension.