Almeida Benítez, P. R.; Márquez Rodríguez, I.; Franco Brañas, J. R. An application of matrix calculus to an engineering problem. (Spanish. English summary) Zbl 1003.15007 Divulg. Mat. 9, No. 2, 195-203 (2001). Summary: We give a real world example that can be used in the last courses of the Secondary School. The generalization of the problem (university level) leads us to some interesting topics: difference equations, diagonalization of matrices, power of a matrix, Markov chains, etc.… MSC: 15A18 Eigenvalues, singular values, and eigenvectors 97D40 Mathematics teaching methods and classroom techniques 15A21 Canonical forms, reductions, classification 39A10 Additive difference equations 60J10 Markov chains (discrete-time Markov processes on discrete state spaces) Keywords:matrix calculus; eigenvalues; diagonalization; real world example; difference equations; power of a matrix; Markov chains PDFBibTeX XMLCite \textit{P. R. Almeida Benítez} et al., Divulg. Mat. 9, No. 2, 195--203 (2001; Zbl 1003.15007) Full Text: EuDML EMIS