Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site charm.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!mhuxj!mhuxi!charm!mam From: mam@charm.UUCP (Matthew Marcus) Newsgroups: net.math,net.philosophy Subject: Re: i**i, foundations and philosophy Message-ID: <251@charm.UUCP> Date: Tue, 21-Feb-84 14:07:47 EST Article-I.D.: charm.251 Posted: Tue Feb 21 14:07:47 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 22-Feb-84 07:09:14 EST References: <230@houem.UUCP>, <363@ihlts.UUCP> <1959@mcnc.UUCP>, <683@ihuxq.UUCP> Organization: Physics Research - AT&T Bell Labs MH Lines: 9 The best mapping for quaternions is to Pauli spin matrices which have the same algebra. The reason you don't hear too much about generalizations of complex numbers is that all such are equivalent to representations of Lie groups, usually the rotation group. For example, Pauli matrices are the bases of the 2x2 matrix rep. of the rotation group in 3D. See any good quantum mech. text for more details. {BTL}!charm!mam