Grassmann, geometry and mechanics
pp. 287-302
in: Steve Russ, Jörg Liesen (eds), From Past to Future: Graßmann's Work in Context, Berlin, Springer, 2011Abstract
Many of the capabilities of Grassmann's algebra are still not well-enough known in the scientific community. This paper discusses just two of them: the capability to distin-guish algebraically between points and vectors in space, and the capability to compute intersections of geometric entities with a simple product operation. The first may be little known due to the mainstreaming of Gibbs' three-dimensional vector algebra; the second due to Grassmann's choice of notation for his product operations. We explore two applications.