Question

in what order are you supposed to solve matrices (like of linear systems) in a way that does that mess up the earlier steps?!!!!!!!!!!! omg

Answer 1

do you have an example?

Answer 2

I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but the general procedure to do is
1) start with the first row and divide the row by the number in the first column (to get a leading 1)
2) Add and substract multiples of rows to the first row in order to get 0 in the first column (except for the leading 1)
3) Same as step 2 but you work on the second column and the second row (this element needs to become a leading one).
4) Add/subtract multiples of rows to the 2nd row to get 0's there (except for the leading 1)... and continue to get a leading one in the 3rd column/3rd row entry etc..

If the 2nd column/2nd row entry has a zero (you cannot make it into a leading one) then just skip that column, and go to the next one and stay on the same row