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
Charles Dodgson (bishop) Charles Dodgson (bishop) Charles Dodgson ( – 21 January 1795) was an English Anglican cleric who served in the Church of Ireland as the Bishop of Ossory (1765–1775) then Bishop of Elphin (1775–1795). Dodgson was born in Howden, Yorkshire. His date of birth is not recorded; he was baptised on 10 January 1722. His father, Christopher Dodgson (1696–1750), was the curate there. Charles Dodgson was educated at Westminster School and St. John's College, Cambridge. After ordination, he was appointed to the parish of Bintry, Norfolk in 1746. He moved to the north of England, keeping a school at Stanwix in