Linear Algebra: Inverse and Transposes
It took three classes but I finally finished all of the section over matrix algebra. During today's lecture we walked through the concepts of matrix inverse and matrix transposes. It's amazing how long these lectures stretch out when you choose to demonstrate the concepts with examples involving matrix operations. As far as I can tell, all the students are following along very closely, except when I start going off on a tangent and trying to draw connections between linear algebra and higher level mathematics.
Somehow I did get sidetracked today into talking about my days as an undergrad at Wayland. I recounted the story of my first day of class with Dr. Almes, when he called out several names at the beginning of class, stating that he wanted to see all of us after class. I was actually filled with dread. I just knew that I had already done something to upset my professor. He was practically the head of the math department and I had ruined my chances of making nice with him. What was he going to do to me? I was going to have to change majors again.
My fears were relieved when, after class, he simply thanked us for attending his church the previous Sunday and invited us to return. It hit home the fact for me that Wayland was more than a typical school. It was a family. It was a Christian family where I was going to school with my brother's and sister's in Christ and I was being taught by my brother's and sister's in Christ. There was no need to separate my learning from my faith, and in fact, in many of my classes they would be closely integrated.
Next time in Linear Algebra, we will cover elementary matrices and derive a computational method for finding matrix inverses.