Re: good text for linear algebra?

G. A. Edgar wrote:

> In article <d4sohs$dbm$2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Robin Chapman
> <rjc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> G. A. Edgar wrote:
>>
>> > At one point
>> > I said: "This system of linear equations can be solved by Cramer's
>> > Rule."
>> Was Cramer's rule essential to the matter at hand?

Was it?

>> Could you have said
>> "This system of linear equations can be solved by Gaussian elimination"
>> or simply
>> "This system of linear equations is soluble"?
>
> So, a mathematics student doesn't need to know the existence of
> Cramer's Rule because you can always solve by Gaussian elimination?

That is not what I said --- but out of these two methods, Gaussian
elimination is the more practical.

> I
> suppose similarly you claim that a mathematics student doesn't need to
> know the quadratic formula, because you can always solve by completing
> the square...

Your suppositions are amusing, however I cannot "similarly claim" as
I made no claim to start with.

--
Robin Chapman, www.maths.ex.ac.uk/~rjc/rjc.html
"Elegance is an algorithm"
Iain M. Banks, _The Algebraist_
.