alright just for fun: AMA but only about math, will attempt to speed-explain stuff with as few symbols and equations as possible and see what happens
(esp happy to field questions about stuff that seems basic to you and that you feel like you should've gotten a long time ago!)
Conversation
So what's this category theory thing? Should I* Care? Is it the second coming of Euler?
*I care about physics and math. modeling, am fine with linear algebra and calculus
1
12
Replying to
the sort of minimalist case for it is that category theory is a really handy toolbox of ways to organize similar kinds of arguments that come up repeatedly in different branches of math. it was invented to be used in algebraic topology and is used heavily in algebraic geometry
a tiny example from linear algebra: the determinant has the multiplicative property that det(AB) = det(A) det(B). it turns out to be a special case of what's called a functor (called "exterior power"), and this turns out to be a special case of what's called functoriality
1
9
functoriality of the exterior power generalizes to an interesting statement about what's called the minors of a matrix, which it would be very difficult to guess is true if you didn't know that they came from exterior powers
1
6
Show replies