OMG, where was this article when I was first learning about tensor products?

https://www.math3ma.com/blog/the-tensor-product-demystified

In 10 minutes I learned more about tensor products than I did in grad school. In particular, I see more of the connection between the way math uses tensor products and how physicist types think of them, as higher-dimensional matrices.

This kind of thing really riles me up. It's the kind of thing that makes me want to go back to teaching, because it hits the exact personality/psychological trait that makes me like teaching: I learn about some cool math thing and I want to charge into a classroom and say "GUYS! I just figured this out! It's so cool and interesting! OMG tensor products are the best, let me show you why!"

It bothers me that I was taught about tensor products in such a bad way. I want students to get something better than I did.

(OTOH, maybe I'm just not very smart, or was a bad student. That's a real possibility. But how great would it be for even dim bulbs and lazy students to get *something* out of learning about a topic?)

#math #linearalgebra #mtbos #teaching