diff --git a/cachematrix.R b/cachematrix.R
index a50be65aa44..7e7d704177f 100644
--- a/cachematrix.R
+++ b/cachematrix.R
@@ -1,15 +1,44 @@
-## Put comments here that give an overall description of what your
-## functions do
-
-## Write a short comment describing this function
+## Assignment 2: Lexical Scoping
+## November 2015
 
+## This function takes a matrix as input, turning it into a matrix
+## which can be passed into the cacheSolve() function which will use
+## the added functions to cache the inverse matrix.
 makeCacheMatrix <- function(x = matrix()) {
-
+  # variable to store the calculated inverse matrix
+  inverse <- NULL
+  # set a new value to the matrix, clearing any cached inverse.
+  set <- function(y) {
+    x <<- y
+    inverse <<- NULL
+  }
+  # return the matrix
+  get <- function() x
+  # store the inverse matrix
+  setinverse <- function(inv) inverse <<- inv
+  # retrieve the inverse matrix
+  getinverse <- function() inverse
+  
+  # create & return a list to store the functions
+  list(
+    set = set,
+    get = get,
+    setinverse = setinverse,
+    getinverse = getinverse
+  )
 }
 
-
-## Write a short comment describing this function
-
+## Takes a cacheable matrix as input allowing a cached inverse matrix
+## to be returned on subsequent calls with the same input.
 cacheSolve <- function(x, ...) {
-        ## Return a matrix that is the inverse of 'x'
+  ## Return a matrix that is the inverse of 'x'
+  inverse <- x$getinverse()
+  if (!is.null(inverse)) {
+    message("getting cached inverse")
+    return(inverse)
+  }
+  data <- x$get()
+  inverse <- solve(data, ...)
+  x$setinverse(inverse)
+  inverse
 }