Resize matrix in LaTeX beamer

Question

Hi I was wondering how to resize matrices in a beamer environment. Currently I am writing the following code:

\begin{align*}
\left( \begin{array}{ccccccc}
 0 & 1 &    &   &        &    &   \\
-1 & 0 &    &   &        &    &   \\
   &   &  0 & 1 &        &    &   \\
   &   & -1 & 0 &        &    &   \\
   &   &    &   & \ddots &    &   \\
   &   &    &   &        & 0  & 1 \\
   &   &    &   &        & -1 & 0
\end{array} \right)
\end{align*}

and the matrix takes up almost a whole page. I would like it to be about half a page in height.

Answer 1

See this answer for how to change font dimensions in LaTeX's math mode.

Edit

Specifying font sizes in beamer is no different from specifying them in other LaTeX documents. To e.g. change the size of your array you would switch the size by adding the command inside your align environment.

Valid commands are \tiny, \scriptsize, \footnotesize, \small, \normalsize, \large, \Large, \huge, and \Huge (there could be more).

Answer 2

There is the \resizebox command in the graphicx package:

\resizebox{.5\textwidth}{!}{  (your array here)  }

I've never tried it, but it looks as it is made exactly for this kind or problem.

Of course, you can choose different widths (first argument) or different height (second argument) parameters.