We consider Vandermonde matrices. These matrices arise in the study of polynomial interpolation. Each row of the Vandermonde matrix corresponds to the power of a number input to the polynomial. To find the coefficients of the polynomial which interpolate the points (a_1,y_1), ..., (a_n,y_n). We solve the system Va = y. We show how to compute the determinant of this matrix by using row reduction and induction.
