/sci/ - Science & Math

>As a set, the quaternions H may be identified with R4, a four-dimensional vector space over the real numbers.

This is trivial, if you don't understand this, why are you trying to understand quaternions?

>they could have just said "A quaternion is a number represented by a four dimensional vector".

This is also wrong and possibly misleading. The quaternions have a different structure from traditional numbers and vectors.
For instance, quaternion multiplication is noncommutative. With numbers, multiplication is commutative, and there is no multiplication rule for standard vectors.

However, I don't think you're wrong about wikipedia. I just think you're a fucking idiot. The article on quaternions is VERY idiot-friendly as far as math articles go. Not sure if you just picked a bad example or what.
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a math textbook. You're going to find a definition there which will not be tailored to a bunch of numberphile babies. That's how encyclopedias work.

It also bothers me that you're implying that there's always a simple explanation for mathematical things, and that you can just 'jump in' wherever you like.
That's not how mathematics is, you fucking plebian. You need to work your way up from the start, building your mathematical arsenal bit by bit.
If you don't like it, then fuck off, you weren't made for math, and you don't belong on this board.

>trying to write ξ
>trying to fit your mathematics within the lines on ruled paper
>you finally write a perfect symbol, but the rest of the page looks like trash
>your problem spans multiple pages and you don't want to tear out a page so you can look at it and make sure you didn't make a mistake, and end up making a mistake
>you spend an hour working on a problem, making sure to make your writing look good for your professor, and and the end you find that you made an arithmetic mistake at the beginning of the problem

i hate how the people that talk about dimensions and time are just fedoracore armchair physicists who learned everything they know on youtube and don't have a fucking clue what linear algebra or minkowski space even is

i mean come on, the basic stuff like linear algebra is fucking easy and is the actual, proper, formal mathematical way to study things, but instead you retards insist on believing some cockmonger on youtube spouting random baseless bullshit that may or may not be true, but you won't know because either you or cockmonger was too stupid to work out the proof

if you watch the big bang theory you should just fucking kill yourself