Let $r$ and $s$ be two non-zero natural integers. Let $A \in \mathcal { M } _ { r } ( \mathbb { R } ) , B \in \mathcal { M } _ { r , s } ( \mathbb { R } ) , C \in \mathcal { M } _ { s , r } ( \mathbb { R } )$ and $D \in \mathcal { M } _ { s } ( \mathbb { R } )$. We further assume that $A$ is invertible. We consider the matrix $M \in \mathcal { M } _ { r + s } ( \mathbb { R } )$ having the following block form $$M = \left[ \begin{array} { l l } A & B \\ C & D \end{array} \right]$$ Find two matrices $U \in \mathcal { M } _ { r , s } ( \mathbb { R } )$ and $V \in \mathcal { M } _ { s } ( \mathbb { R } )$ such that $$M = \left[ \begin{array} { c c } A & 0 \\ C & I _ { s } \end{array} \right] \cdot \left[ \begin{array} { c c } I _ { r } & U \\ 0 & V \end{array} \right]$$ and deduce that $$\operatorname { det } ( M ) = \operatorname { det } ( A ) \cdot \operatorname { det } \left( D - C A ^ { - 1 } B \right)$$