Why Linear Algebra?

18 Jun 2019

Back in the 2016, I enrolled into a Linear Algebra course and struggled to complete it. It was a requisite course for graduation of university, so I did not have a choice. The course was terrible, despite the effort of professor. It was difficult, easy to skip morning class, and besides I took the course alone.

I did not acknowledge the importance of the Linear Algebra, as I did not have much thought about Data Science nor development at that time. I have to admit that my attitude was not engaged. Several years have passed from then and I regret the past. I felt that I need to study this course once more before proceeding to my master’s degree.

So, let’s not repeat the past and see why Linear Algebra is regarded as an important course.

Importance of Linear Algebra

Roughly speaking, Linear Algebra is a subject that studies vectors and matrices. Data tends to come in as a table or matrix, an array of numbers and we also process them as in columns or rows. So, it is quite natural to study Linear Algebra in order to interpret, understand or manipulate data.

The subject, in fact, deals with the most fundamental and the simplest form of mathematical problems, which is the sum of constant times variables just like a set of equations below:

\(ax_1+bx_2+cx_3 = p \\ dx_1+ex_2+fx_3 = q \\ gx_1+hx_2+ix_3 = r\)

In order to understand space, dimension, vectors, Linear Algebra is the basic where you should start.