Linear algebra is the study of vectors, matrices, and the linear transformations between them.
Note
If you’re rusty, the thing to re-learn first is that a matrix is a linear transformation — not just a grid of numbers.
Why it keeps coming up
- It’s the natural language for anything you can stack into rows and columns.
- Eigenvalues and eigenvectors expose the “natural axes” of a transformation.
- It powers most of the math behind graph theory, optimization, and machine learning.
See also: graph-theory for where this becomes load-bearing.