In linear algebra, the Laplace expansion, named after Pierre-Simon Laplace, also called cofactor expansion, is an expression of the determinant of an n × n matrix B as a weighted sum of minors, which are the determinants of some (n − 1) × (n − 1) submatrices of B. Specifically, for every i, where is the entry of the ith row and jth column of B, and is the determinant of the submatrix obtained by removing the ith row and the jth column of B. The term is called the cofactor of in B.