The Story of Clifford Algebra
William Kingdon Clifford developed Clifford algebra in 1878.
It was a new and very sophisticated algebra - and basically ignored by the math community.
So in 1905 when Einstein started work on General Relativity he consulted mathematicians for the best tools. Tensor Calculus was the overwhelming choice.
After an agonizing 10 year slog he published the field equations of General Relativity in Tensor form as 10 highly coupled equations.
Then in 1966 David Hestenes "rediscovered" Clifford algebra and spruced it up into a thing called Spacetime Algebra (STA).
When STA was used to rewrite the 10 Einstein Field Equations they reduce to one equation!
So in retrospect much of Einstein's brutal slog was unnecessary.
But the magic does not stop here. What if you write the famous Maxwell's Equations using Clifford Algebra, Bingo, the 4 equations reduce to one.
And Dirac's equation? Dramatically simplified.
Recently Clifford Algebra is being considered in AI - for an incredibly simple reason - it can do the same work but without using matrices. All the insane matrix multiplication vanishes.
Tech Notes:
Disclaimer: This is not intended as medical advice. It's for informational purposes only.
Content written and posted by Ken Abbott abbottsystems@gmail.com
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