The utility of storing multiple values in one variable is not lost on me for programming:

poptart( 1, 10, 8, 42)

print( poptart [ 2 ] )

Result

10

Today I am learning how to build a matrix of m rows and n columns. Commonly referred to as a “table” when there is more than one row. In the past, I absolutely hated learning matrix multiplication in graduate school: when I was in high school back in the stone age, they didn’t teach matrices at the secondary level.

It’s not that I can’t multiply or manipulate matrices, which is a common refrain of students, i.e. “I hate this!” when they are unable to master a math concept. Instead, it felt like an ineligant insertion to a math curriculum that had held together for generations without it. I know, progress and all. And I know there are plenty of math problems involving quadratics that can be solved more easily using a matrix approach.

The discomfort, I think, came from the abstract nature of the way it was taught, and the way I was expected to teach it. Perhaps I needed to see a practical application of it to justify learning it. Today with coding, I will hopefully gain a greater appreciation for matrices’s utility.

Further reading

What's the use of matrices in real life?Answer (1 of 39): The key property that matrices have is that they give you a concrete way of describing linear transformations. Linear transformations are extremely fundamental mathematical objects, and since matrices give you an efficient means of representing them for calculations, that means ...www.quora.com

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Do any Programming Languages still use Line Numbers for Coding?Learning how to program in the stastics-based language R involves using loops such as for and while, as well as if statements. It's standard stuff that I assume most programming languages include. ...cake.co

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@StephenL

You may find this article relevant.

The 'Useless' Perspective That Transformed MathematicsWhen representation theory emerged in the late 19th century, many mathematicians questioned its worth. In 1897, the English mathematician William Burnside wrote that he doubted that this unorthodox perspective would yield any new results at all. "Basically what [Burnside was] saying is that representation theory is useless," said Geordie Williamson of the University of Sydney in a 2015 lecture.www.quantamagazine.org

Have you watched 3Blue1Brown's videos? If you click on the link instead of watching in-page, there is a whole playlist: https://youtu.be/kjBOesZCoqc