# determinant

> The determinant of the matrix. (Read Only)

## Definition

* **Type:** Property
* **Namespace:** [UnityEngine](/engine/6000.6/script-reference/unityengine.md)
* **Assembly:** UnityEngine.CoreModule

```csharp
public readonly float determinant { get; }
```

### Remarks

You can not invert matrices with a determinant of zero.

```csharp
using UnityEngine;

public class ExampleScript : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Update()
    {
        // create a transformation matrix with scale, zero position and no rotation
        var scale = new Vector3(5,3,2);
        var matrix = Matrix4x4.TRS(Vector3.zero, Quaternion.identity, scale);

        // determinant of a scaled matrix is volume of the parallelepiped
        // formed from its axes, in this case 5*3*2=30
        Debug.Log(matrix.determinant);
    }
}
```

See [Determinant on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinant) for more details.

Additional Resources: [Matrix4x4.inverse](/engine/6000.6/script-reference/unityengine/matrix4x4/inverse.md) property, [Matrix4x4.Inverse3DAffine](/engine/6000.6/script-reference/unityengine/matrix4x4/inverse3daffine.md) method.