noncommutative extension of the real numbers From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In mathematics, the quaternion number system (represented using the symbol ) extends the complex numbers into four dimensions. They were first described by Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton in 1843.[1][2] They are often used in computer graphics to compute 3-dimensional rotations.
1 | i | j | k | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | i | j | k |
i | i | −1 | k | −j |
j | j | −k | −1 | i |
k | k | j | −i | −1 |
The eight-dimensional octonions come after the quaternions.
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