What distance separates two towns are 3 1/2 inches apart on the map and the scale is 1″ = 25 miles? What are the ways  to separate this matrix into two matrix mathematically? for eg. m=[-1 0 1;-2 0 2;-1 0 1]  into a=[1 2 1] b=[-1 0 1] so m=a'*b;