[FRIAM] The Strange Numbers That Birthed Modern Algebra

[Edward Angel]

I wrote the following for Reuben Hersh’s memorial. The story is from when Reuben, Vera and I were in the same carpool to UNM.

During one of our commutes, Reuben and I were sharing the back seat and Reuben brought up the subject of quaternions. For the mathematician quaternions, which are the extension of simple complex numbers from two to three dimensions, have a long and interesting history. Their discovery took a long time even though some of the best mathematicians worked the problem. Nevertheless, they are both simple and elegant. Reuben, of course, loved them for both the history and the mathematics and was going to talk about them in his upcoming class. I mentioned that quaternions are used extensively in computer graphics (any student who takes a class in computer graphics knows about them), animation (for designing camera paths), aerospace (for head mounted displays) and by NASA (in rocket control systems). Reuben was amazed. His response was “Someone actually uses them!?” When we got to Albuquerque, Reuben, still in a state of amazement, dragged me to his class, put me in front, and his introduction was “this guy is going to tell you how people actually use quaternions.” He then sat in the back, thoroughly enjoying my impromptu lecture. 

Ed

_______________________

Ed Angel

Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab)
Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico

1017 Sierra Pinon
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505-984-0136 (home)		 	angel at cs.unm.edu <mailto:angel at cs.unm.edu>
505-453-4944 (cell) 				http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel <http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel>

> On Sep 7, 2020, at 2:17 PM, Tom Johnson <tom at jtjohnson.com> wrote:
> 
> The 19th-century discovery of numbers called “quaternions” gave mathematicians a way to describe rotations in space, forever changing physics and math.
> 
> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-strange-numbers-that-birthed-modern-algebra-20180906/?fbclid=IwAR32bY8dnkg_hCYImiFlJgJL3g_r1CR9Eos4V_YEPcb7bvYJWlTe-8-83fY <https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-strange-numbers-that-birthed-modern-algebra-20180906/?fbclid=IwAR32bY8dnkg_hCYImiFlJgJL3g_r1CR9Eos4V_YEPcb7bvYJWlTe-8-83fY>  
> 
> TJ
> 
> ============================================
> Tom Johnson - tom at jtjohnson.com <mailto:tom at jtjohnson.com>
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