QUATERNIONS
Noun
quaternions
plural of quaternion
Source: Wiktionary
QUATERNION
Qua*ter"ni*on, n. Etym: [L. quaternio, fr.quaterni four each. See
Quaternary.]
1. The number four. [Poetic]
2. A set of four parts, things, or person; four things taken
collectively; a group of four words, phrases, circumstances, facts,
or the like.
Delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers. Acts xii. 4.
Ye elements, the eldest birth Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion
run. Milton.
The triads and quaternions with which he loaded his sentences. Sir W.
Scott.
3. A word of four syllables; a quadrisyllable.
4. (Math.)
Definition: The quotient of two vectors, or of two directed right lines in
space, considered as depending on four geometrical elements, and as
expressible by an algebraic symbol of quadrinomial form.
Note: The science or calculus of quaternions is a new mathematical
method, in which the conception of a quaternion is unfolded and
symbolically expressed, and is applied to various classes of
algebraical, geometrical, and physical questions, so as to discover
theorems, and to arrive at the solution of problems. Sir W. R.
Hamilton.
Qua*ter"ni*on, v. t.
Definition: To divide into quaternions, files, or companies. Milton.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition