The determinant is a value associated with a square matrix. It is used throughout mathematics; for more details, please refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinant. For a n x n real value matrix, the determinant corresponds to the scaling a n-dimensional volume undergoes when transformed by the matrix. The positive sign of the determinant means the volume preserves its orientation (clockwise or anticlockwise), while a negative sign means reversed orientation. The numpy.linalg module has a det() function that returns the determinant of a matrix.