dsimcha <[email protected]> wrote:
I find linear algebra impossible to grok largely because some
genius
mathematician decided to overload a bunch of operators to mean completely
different things when dealing with matrices than when dealing with
scalars. Heck, the multiplication operator isn't even commutative.
In the schools I've been to (in Norway), multiplication of scalars
has always been indicated by the middle-dot operator (·, U+00B7), as
has componentwise multiplication of matrices. The multiplication
sign (x, ×, U+00D7) was used for cross-product of vectors, as well
as ordinary matrix multiplication. This has given me the impression
(which seems to hold true in the Norwegian school system) that
middle-dot is commutative, multiplication sign is not. I do however
know it does not hold true in all context, which is unfortunate.
--
Simen
