Hamilton believed quaternions were the ultimate language of the universe. However, they were incredibly difficult to use. To do simple physics, you had to drag around a complicated four-part number when you really only cared about three-dimensional space. 2. The Great Schism (1880s)
In 1843, the Irish mathematician was walking across a bridge in Dublin when he had a "eureka" moment. He carved the formula for Quaternions into the stone. Quaternions were four-dimensional numbers ( Classical Vector Algebra (Textbooks in Mathemat...
By the early 1900s, the battle was over. In 1901, , a student of Gibbs, published Vector Analysis . This was the first true textbook in the modern sense. It standardized the notation we use in every physics and engineering classroom today ( Hamilton believed quaternions were the ultimate language of