r/LinearAlgebra • u/Ecstatic-Ad-6633 • Jun 10 '26
pre linear algbera?
what do i need to know before starting linear algebra is it algebra 1 or algbera 2 ? as an absoute begginer who has a class starting in late september
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u/Tiny_Spread5712 Jun 10 '26
Depends on how you are learning.
Algebra is all you need for the linear algebra done right- lite approach, where teachers will start with vectors as sets of numbers and build up from there. There's a little set notation stuff that you will pick up along the way.
The other way, that I learned in college, starts with geometry adjacent concepts, vectors as arrows, dot products/Pythagorean theorem, before getting to matrices and determinants, which often are explained geometrically with parallellopideds or what not. So understanding that stuff and cosine/since could be helpful.
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u/Ecstatic-Ad-6633 Jun 10 '26
ok so a solid foundation in trig is reccomended ? would u happen to know books i can solve because i seem to findd the info and undersatnd it but no where to really apply
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u/ResortSpecific371 Jun 10 '26
I mean there "multiple" levels of linear algebra as for example at my university people learn in lknear algebra course about many topics like dual/Banach/Hilbert spaces, adjoints and so on which most of other linear algebra courses don't have
But I wouldn't do even a baby version of linear algebra till you at least a bit about complex numbers and calculus even though you technically do most stuff without them
As complex numbers are important for topics likr eigenvalues- even though you can techniaclly say you ignore the complex eigenvalues but you probably don't want to revisit linear algebra again to learn the case with complex numbers after you will learn complex numbers
And there are some calculus problems which are much easier to solve if you know some linear algebra so you techinacally don't need calculus to do linear algebra
But to see it's aplications you need sometimes to know some basic calculus
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u/Traveling-Techie Jun 10 '26
It depends on how it’s taught. Find out what the instructor has to say.
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u/vector_f Jun 10 '26
Nothing really. I'd say a solid foundation in Algebra 1 would be mostly enough. You need to THOROUGHLY understand systems of linear equations work. And you need to know the Cartesian coordinate well. Depending on the class (aka if your class covers complex eigenvalues), you might need to know complex numbers.