[jameshart]

What I find amazing is, given how important linear algebra is to actual practical applications, high school math still goes so deep on calculus at the expense of really covering even basic vectors and matrices.

Where vectors do come up it’s usually only Cartesian vectors for mechanics, and only basic addition, scalar multiplication and component decomposition are talked about - even dot products are likely ignored.

[bee_rider]

I think it was a brilliant and evil trick by the linear algebra folks.

Start the path at calculus. Naturally, this will lead to differential equations. Trick the engineers into defining everything in terms of differential equations.

The engineers will get really annoyed, because solving differential equations is impossible.

Then, the mathematicians swoop in with the idea of discretizing everything and using linear algebra to step through it instead. Suddenly they can justify all the million-by-millions matrices they wanted and everybody thinks they are heroes. Engineers will build the giant vector processing machines that they want.

[rramadass]

Ha, Ha, True dat :-)

[ViscountPenguin]

That's very strange, where I live linear algebra was a significant portion of the highschool maths curriculum.

The actual presentation was terrible, I'll be lucky if I die before having to invert a matrix by hand again, but it was there.

[JadeNB]

I think that, to be frank, it's a combination of (1) a curriculum developed before it was clear how ubiquitous linear algebra would become, and (2) the fact that it's a lot easier to come up with a standardized assessment for algorithmic calculus than for linear algebra, precisely because linear algebra is both conceptual and proof-based in a way that has been squeezed out of algorithmic calculus.

(I use algorithmic calculus to describe the high-school subject, and distinguish it from what in American universities is usually called "analysis," where one finally has the chance to make the acquaintance of the conceptual and proof-based aspects squeezed out of algorithmic calculus.)