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As far as I understand, a diagonal matrix is one whose non-zero elements are on the main diagonal. Am I correct in assuming that the diagonal can contain zeros as well? ie:

$ \begin{bmatrix} 0&0 \\ 0&1 \\ \end{bmatrix} $ and $ \begin{bmatrix} 1&0 \\ 0&0 \\ \end{bmatrix} $

are also diagonal matrices.

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Indeed, you are right, there may be zero elements on the diagonal. But your definition of diagonal matrix is slightly ambiguous. A clearer definition (in my opinion) is that all off-diagonal entries are zero.

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    @alexcoco No problem. Glad I could help clarify this.2012-09-25