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Most everyone is familiar with the “real” numbers, but far more types of numbers exist. Among them, the best known are the complex numbers, which include a square root of –1.
We can build higher-dimensional number systems as well. But we can define all the four basic operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication and division—in only a few special cases.
One such case is the octonions, an eight-dimensional number system. Mathematicians invented it in the 1840s but, finding few applications, paid little attention for the next 150-plus years.
Mathematicians now suspect that the octonions may help us understand advanced research in particle physics in fields such as supersymmetry and string theory.
More about it here.
We can build higher-dimensional number systems as well. But we can define all the four basic operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication and division—in only a few special cases.
One such case is the octonions, an eight-dimensional number system. Mathematicians invented it in the 1840s but, finding few applications, paid little attention for the next 150-plus years.
Mathematicians now suspect that the octonions may help us understand advanced research in particle physics in fields such as supersymmetry and string theory.
More about it here.
