Matrices

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the theory of matrices, how it was developed, how it changed, some of the applications for which it has been used, and other aspects of the issue. The writer notes how the underlying ideas are ancient and began with the Babylonians and Chinese and then resurfaced in the seventeenth century with the world of Cayley and others. Further the writer points out that the theory of matrices has led to uses in physics, chemistry, and economics as well as mathematics.

From the Paper:

"Matrices are a means of visualizing mathematical concepts and relationships in graphic form. A matrix is a rectangular set of elements viewed as a single entity, identified by the number of rows and columns of which it is made. Matrices can be added or multiplied on the basis of an algebra of matrices, and one application of this sort of operation is seen in vector analysis and in the solving of systems of linear equations. The basis for the matrix is found in the Cartesian system of Rene Descartes, whose contribution to mathematics was in the development of analytical geometry, closely tied with the development of the Cartesian system of mapping on a grid or graph, for Descartes saw that a function or polynomial can be represented graphically by points."

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