Re:Calculus with Julia
by bee_rider on Sunday May 19, 2024 @02:01AM
(#40404570)
In programming it is typical to have an “eig” function, or something of the sort, which returns the eigenvalues of a matrix. eig(M) seems no less vomit inducing than M.eigenvaues(). Usually when mathematicians want eigenvalues they write something like “Given a matrix M with eigenvalues \lambda” and the eigenvalues just show up.
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In Julia:
M = [1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9]
λ = eigvals(M)
Sure, my point is that even the math-y programming languages and libraries don’t map very well to how mathematicians seem to describe eigenvalues.
Personally I think of them as a characteristic of the matrix (but I just write numerical software, I’m not a mathematician) and implement them as the result of a process. So I don’t really see any reason to favor either syntax or call one more mathematical.