Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Quaternion
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
=== Quaternions in physics === The finding of 1924 that in [[quantum mechanics]] the [[Spin (physics)|spin]] of an electron and other matter particles (known as [[spinors]]) can be described using quaternions (in the form of the famous [[Pauli matrices|Pauli spin matrices]]) furthered their interest; quaternions helped to understand how rotations of electrons by 360Β° can be discerned from those by 720Β° (the "[[Plate trick]]").<ref>{{cite web |last1=Huerta |first1=John |title=Introducing The Quaternions |url=http://math.ucr.edu/~huerta/introquaternions.pdf |access-date=8 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021093534/http://math.ucr.edu/~huerta/introquaternions.pdf |archive-date=2014-10-21 |url-status=live |date=27 September 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Charlie |last=Wood |title=The Strange Numbers That Birthed Modern Algebra |date=6 September 2018 |work=Abstractions blog |publisher=Quanta Magazine |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-strange-numbers-that-birthed-modern-algebra-20180906/}}</ref> {{As of|2018}}, their use has not overtaken [[orthogonal group|rotation groups]].<ref group=lower-alpha>A more personal view of quaternions was written by [[Joachim Lambek]] in 1995. He wrote in his essay ''If Hamilton had prevailed: quaternions in physics'': "My own interest as a graduate student was raised by the inspiring book by Silberstein". He concluded by stating "I firmly believe that quaternions can supply a shortcut for pure mathematicians who wish to familiarize themselves with certain aspects of theoretical physics." {{cite magazine |author=Lambek, J. |title=If Hamilton had prevailed: Quaternions in physics |year=1995 |magazine=Math. Intelligencer |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=7β15 |doi=10.1007/BF03024783}}</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)