Dex-chan lover
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2018
- Messages
- 5,156
@stray_dog_—
I knew an engineer who used quaterions regularly. At the time, it came as a surprise to me that they hadn't fallen entirely from use; but still not very many people used them, and the point here is that some people regularly use things that most scientists and engineers do not.
I'm sure that most people in the aforementioned sciences and engineering don't use linear algebra except in the same sense that they use trigonometric identities, which is to say that these things underlie some of the mathematical tools that they use, but they use those tools without the identities or linear algebra rising to the surface.
Very few people in the social and behavioral sciences outside of economics could even tell you what a determinant were. Setting aside rote use of second-order multivariate optimization conditions (which are often ignored!) and outside of teaching, almost the only economists who use linear algebra overtly are general equilibrium theorists and those who develop statistical theory. (The latter is arguably mathematics and not social science itself, but some folk in economics departments are engaged in it.)
I knew an engineer who used quaterions regularly. At the time, it came as a surprise to me that they hadn't fallen entirely from use; but still not very many people used them, and the point here is that some people regularly use things that most scientists and engineers do not.
I'm sure that most people in the aforementioned sciences and engineering don't use linear algebra except in the same sense that they use trigonometric identities, which is to say that these things underlie some of the mathematical tools that they use, but they use those tools without the identities or linear algebra rising to the surface.
Very few people in the social and behavioral sciences outside of economics could even tell you what a determinant were. Setting aside rote use of second-order multivariate optimization conditions (which are often ignored!) and outside of teaching, almost the only economists who use linear algebra overtly are general equilibrium theorists and those who develop statistical theory. (The latter is arguably mathematics and not social science itself, but some folk in economics departments are engaged in it.)
