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Re:Bret Victor's Bookshelf by gohrt on Wednesday January 06, 2016 @02:35AM (#10849162)
Interesting that Bret is a big fan of Geometric Algebra (keeping several books on the topic), which is alluring to amateurs, but dismissed by professional mathematicians/physicists as a vanity effort to rename standard concepts.
Re:Bret Victor's Bookshelf by questerzen on Thursday January 07, 2016 @12:01AM (#10856090)
Roger Penrose's Road to Reality makes use of Clifford Algebra and Grassmann Products, so at least some serious physicists are using it seriously.

Even though I had come across it before, I had a real revelation when I read David Hestenes short paper on it (from Bret Victor's website) http://worrydream.com/refs/Hestenes-ReformingTheMathematical... It is indeed beautiful to see how complex geometry and vector fields are connected via GA. I found especially revealing the relationship between electric and magnetic fields. I agree with the article that whatever its absolute merits, it would be a good way to teach new physicists. I have already ordered my copy of "Clifford Algebra to Geometric Calculus".

Whether it is actually more practical to do work in General Relativity or Quantum Mechanics, or indeed Quantum Field Theory etc., I'll have to leave for the experts in those fields. From an outsider's perspective, it is a delight to understand some of the connections between different disciplines in a more intuitive way.

In any case, I would imagine that GA is exceptionally useful for computer graphics and physical simulations.

Re:Bret Victor's Bookshelf by laughinghan on Wednesday January 06, 2016 @02:43AM (#10849186)
While it's not exactly mainstream, I definitely know physicists I wouldn't consider "amateurs" who are fans of Geometric Algebra.
Re:Bret Victor's Bookshelf by i336_ on Wednesday January 06, 2016 @05:40PM (#10854449)
This comment is the opposite opinion to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10847769. Interesting