# How to “reshape” into square matrix for numpy.linalg.solve()?

I'm trying to find the intersection of lines $$y=a_1x+b_1$$ and $$y=a_2x+b_2$$ using numpy.linalg.solve(). What I can't get my head around is how to correctly make $$A$$ a square matrix for solve() to work. I'm familiar with solving linear equation systems, but there's something here I don't get.

What I'd like to do is:

def meeting_lines(a1, b1, a2, b2):
a = np.array([[a1], [a2]])
b = np.array([b1, b2])
return np.linalg.solve(a, b)

def main():
a1=1
b1=4
a2=3
b2=2

y, x = meeting_lines(a1, b1, a2, b2)


Where I expect $$y=-3$$ and $$x=1$$. However, this fails with numpy.linalg.LinAlgError: Last 2 dimensions of the array must be square.

Thank you very much for your help, trying to figure this out has messed up my day already!

• NB: I must use numpy.linalg.solve(). – basse Apr 1 at 12:49

You should formulate your lines as follows to have $$(x, y)$$ as unknowns: \begin{align} \left.\begin{matrix} a_1x-y=-b_1\\ a_2x-y=-b_2 \end{matrix}\right\} \rightarrow \overbrace{ \begin{bmatrix} a_1& -1\\ a_2& -1 \end{bmatrix} }^{\boldsymbol{a}} \overbrace{ \begin{bmatrix} x\\ y \end{bmatrix} }^{\boldsymbol{x}} = \overbrace{ \begin{bmatrix} -b_1\\ -b_2 \end{bmatrix} }^{\boldsymbol{b}} \end{align} Therefore, the code should be:

import numpy as np

def meeting_lines(a1, b1, a2, b2):
a = np.array([[a1, -1], [a2, -1]])
b = np.array([-b1, -b2])
return np.linalg.solve(a, b)

a1=1
b1=4
a2=3
b2=2
x, y = meeting_lines(a1, b1, a2, b2)
print(x, y)


which outputs:

1.0 5.0