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Glite Dictionary
quaternionic

quaternionic

9.9
An adjective for a system of numbers used to show 3D rotations
  • adjective
  • /kwɔːrˈtɛnɪk/
  • Specialized
: cuaterniónico
  • The professor introduced the concept of quaternionic numbers during the advanced mathematics lecture.

Examples

  • He had worked out the spectral theory of self-adjoint operators in quaternionic Hilbert space.

    Academic text (1999)

  • I had ideas of my own for a thesis—for instance, to develop quaternionic quantum mechanics.

    Academic text (1999)

  • We shall examine many mathematical objects, both familiar and strange, the real complex and quartz quaternionic number systems.

  • In his research, he focused on quaternionic analysis to solve complex equations.

  • The study explores the applications of quaternionic algebra in modern physics.

Surface Forms

quaternionic positive

Morphology

quaternionic = quaternion (transparent) = quaternion + ic

The adjective is clearly formed from the noun 'quaternion' with the productive adjectival suffix '-ic' meaning 'relating to'.

Etymology

The word quaternionic comes from quaternion, which originally means 'a set of four' — think of a quartet, a group of four musicians. Quaternions are numbers with four parts used in math and 3D graphics, so quaternionic means 'about those four-part numbers'.