Vectors and Matrices (Fall 2011)

Course description

High school math introduces two of the most useful ideas in mathematics: matrices and vectors. But why, exactly, are these concepts useful? It's hard to tell, because most teachers treat these topics the same way: they give you some definitions, make you do a few calculations, then promptly ignore them for the rest of the year. If I don't need to use these ideas again, then they aren't important, right? Of course, nothing could be more wrong. Vectors and matrices are incredibly useful in science, economics, engineering, and tons of other real-world subjects. Plus, these ideas are elegant, interesting, and...well...cool!

In this class, we'll go over what makes vectors work, see how vectors and matrices are related, and see how the two can be used in such awesome endeavors as building an airplane, making a video game, and even imagining space with more than three dimensions.