William Rowan Hamilton is more numerically stable than combining many matrix transformations. In control and modelling applications, quaternions do not have a computational singularity (undefined division by zero) that can occur for quarter-turn rotations (90 degrees) that are achievable by many Air, Sea and Space vehicles. In pure mathematics, quaternions show up significantly as one of the four finite-dimensional normed division algebras over the real numbers, with applications throughout algebra and geometry. It is believed by some modern mathematicians that Hamilton's work on quaternions was satirized by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in Alice in Wonderland. In particular, the Mad Hatter's tea party was meant
Neil Dodgson Neil Dodgson Neil Anthony Dodgson is Professor of Computer Graphics at the Victoria University of Wellington. He was previously (until 2016) Professor of Graphics and Imaging in the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in England, where he worked in the "Rainbow Group" on computer graphics and interaction. Dodgson graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Physics from Massey University in 1988 and subsequently worked there as a Junior Lecturer in Computer Science for one year. He was awarded a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Prince of Wales Scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge, where