A #linearalgebra question. To understand a #math, you should visualize it. I don't have a good visualization of a matrix determinant. The best I manage is that it's the difference of the areas of rectangles ( (hyper-)volume for higher dimensions) made from mixing the x and y coordinates of the row vectors that compose the matrix.
1) What does this mean?
2) Is there a better visualization?

\[ A=\left( \begin{matrix}
2 & 4 \\
1 & 3
\end{matrix} \right ) \]
\[ det(A)=2\times3-4\times1=2 \]