Linear algebra has become the subject to know for people in quantitative disciplines of all kinds. No longer the exclusive domain of mathematicians and engineers, it is now used everywhere there is data and everybody who works with data needs to know more. This new book from Professor Gilbert Strang, author of the acclaimed Introduction to Linear Algebra, now in its fifth edition, makes linear algebra accessible to everybody, not just those with a strong background in mathematics. It takes a more active start, beginning by finding independent columns of small matrices, leading to the key concepts of linear combinations and rank and column space. From there it passes on to the classical topics of solving linear equations, orthogonality, linear transformations and subspaces, all clearly explained with many examples and exercises. The last major topics are eigenvalues and the important singular value decomposition, illustrated with applications to differential equations and image compression. A final optional chapter explores the ideas behind deep learning.
William Gilbert Strang (born November 27, 1934), usually known as simply Gilbert Strang or Gil Strang, is an American mathematician, with contributions to finite element theory, the calculus of variations, wavelet analysis and linear algebra. He has made many contributions to mathematics education, including publishing seven mathematics textbooks and one monograph. Strang is the MathWorks Professor of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He teaches Introduction to Linear Algebra and Computational Science and Engineering and his lectures are freely available through MIT OpenCourseWare.