6. Linear Algebra and Geometry

In Encoding and Representation, we discussed how all data, (regardless of its form, format or modality) needs to be converted into a matrix of numbers.

Linear Algebra is the mathematics of such matrices of numbers. It is a fundamental tool in many fields, including data science and machine learning. In this section, we will review some of the basic concepts of linear algebra.

Before we talk about matrices however, we need to talk about vectors. In order to talk about vectors, in turn, we need to talk about scalars.