new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/linear-algebra/cond.m
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+function retval = cond (a)
+
+# usage: cond (a)
+#
+# Return the condition number of a, computed using the singular values
+# of a.
+#
+# See also: norm, svd
+
+  if (nargin == 1)
+    [nr, nc] = size (a);
+    if (nr == 0 && nc == 0)
+      if (strcmp (propagate_empty_matrices, "false"))
+        error ("cond: empty matrix is invalid as argument");
+      endif
+      if (strcmp (propagate_empty_matrices, "warn"))
+        printf ("warning: cond: argument is empty matrix\n");
+      endif
+      retval = 0.0;
+    endif
+    sigma = svd (a);
+    retval = sigma (1) / sigma (length (sigma));
+  else
+    error ("usage: cond (a)");
+  endif
+
+endfunction