prof. Murat Tanisli (Anadolu Univ. Turcja)

Use of Quaternions in Physics

Quaternions as generalization of complex numbers were first inven- ted by Sir W.R. Hamilton after a lengthy struggle to extend the theory of complex numbers to three dimensions. Clifford extended the Hamilton's notation of a quaternion as the ratio of two vectors. Quaternions are divisible algebraically. Especially, this property is advantageous for physicists. Quaternions (4-dimensions), biqua- ternions (8-dimensions), octonions (8-dimensions) -Clifford Algeb- ras- play an important role for the justification of the postulates in the special relativity, electromagnetism, group theory, acous- tics, quantum and classical mechanics as well as solving high energy physics' problems. They can also be used to represent phy- sical quantities. There are a lot of studies with these algebras in physics