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Is there any easy way to see that elementary matrices commute in $\text {Mat}_{n \times n} (\mathbb F)$?

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Is there any easy way to see that elementary matrices commute in $\text {Mat}_{n \times n} (\mathbb F)$ ?

I've been trying to sketch a proof by induction, but it seems more complicated that it should be.

Induction start is easy by considering $1 \times 1$, but in general there are many cases ?

Def: An elementary matrix is an $n \times n$-matrix corresponding to an elementary row operation.

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1 Answer

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There isn't, because they don't (for $n>1$).

Every invertible matrix is a product of elementary matrices. If invertible matrices commuted, then any two invertible matrices would commute!

Can you find an example of two elementary matrices which don't commute?

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