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 (priest) at Preston Brook, and held weekly services there for the bargees. In 1843 Dodgson was given the Crown living of Croft, Yorkshire, by the Prime Minister, Robert Peel, at the urging of Longley. In 1852 he was additionally collated as a canon of Ripon Cathedral and in 1854 became the Archdeacon of Richmond. At Croft he restored the chancel of St Peter's Church and once again started a school, sacrificing part of the glebe to it. He taught there, as did his wife and later some of his children. Dodgson was a contemporary and college friend of Edward Bouverie Pusey,