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3Blue1Brown Series

3Blue1Brown Series Essence of linear algebra

Essence of linear algebra Plot

A geometric understanding of matrices, determinants, eigen-stuffs and more.

3Blue1Brown Series Essence of linear algebra aired on August 6th, 2016.

Essence of linear algebra Episodes

1. Vectors, what even are they?

August 6th, 2016

Kicking off the linear algebra lessons, let's make sure we're all on the same page about how specifically to think about vectors in this context.

2. Linear combinations, span, and basis vectors

August 7th, 2016

The fundamental vector concepts of span, linear combinations, linear dependence, and bases all center on one surprisingly important operation: Scaling several vectors and adding them together.

3. Linear transformations and matrices

August 7th, 2016

Matrices can be thought of as transforming space, and understanding how this work is crucial for understanding many other ideas that follow in linear algebra.

4. Matrix multiplication as composition

August 9th, 2016

Multiplying two matrices represents applying one transformation after another. Many facts about matrix multiplication become much clearer once you digest this fact.

5. Three-dimensional linear transformations

August 10th, 2016

What do 3d linear transformations look like? Having talked about the relationship between matrices and transformations in the last two videos, this one extends those same concepts to three dimensions.

6. The determinant

August 11th, 2016

The determinant of a linear transformation measures how much areas/volumes change during the transformation.

7. Inverse matrices, column space and null space

August 16th, 2016

How to think about linear systems of equations geometrically. The focus here is on gaining an intuition for the concepts of inverse matrices, column space, rank and null space, but the computation of those constructs is not discussed.

8. Nonsquare matrices as transformations between dimensions

August 16th, 2016

Because people asked, this is a video briefly showing the geometric interpretation of non-square matrices as linear transformations that go between dimensions.

9. Dot products and duality

August 24th, 2016

Dot products are a nice geometric tool for understanding projection. But now that we know about linear transformations, we can get a deeper feel for what's going on with the dot product, and the connection between its numerical computation and its geometric interpretation.

10. Cross products

September 1st, 2016

This covers the main geometric intuition behind the 2d and 3d cross products.

11. Cross products in the light of linear transformations

September 3rd, 2016

For anyone who wants to understand the cross product more deeply, this video shows how it relates to a certain linear transformation via duality. This perspective gives a very elegant explanation of why the traditional computation of a dot product corresponds to its geometric interpretation.

12. Cramer's rule, explained geometrically

March 17th, 2019

This rule seems random to many students, but it has a beautiful reason for being true.

13. Change of basis

September 11th, 2016

How do you translate back and forth between coordinate systems that use different basis vectors?

14. Eigenvectors and eigenvalues

September 15th, 2016

A visual understanding of eigenvectors, eigenvalues, and the usefulness of an eigenbasis.

15. A quick trick for computing eigenvalues

May 7th, 202113 min

How to write the eigenvalues of a 2x2 matrix just by looking at it.

16. Abstract vector spaces

September 24th, 201617 min

This is really the reason linear algebra is so powerful.