3 ms·

But most of these students (particularly ones taking the lin alg course that apparently has APPLIED in all caps in the title) are going to be engineers or simil

But most of these students (particularly ones taking the lin alg course that apparently has APPLIED in all caps in the title) are going to be engineers or similar who will never encounter the fundamentals outside of their application in tools like k means. Teaching them an abstract field without connections to what motivates it (intellectually or practically) is pedagogically not ideal.

scoobyyabbadoo 7y ago
>Teaching them an abstract field without connections to what motivates it (intellectually or practically) is pedagogically not ideal. While fair in general, the point is k means has nothing to do with linear algebra besides they both use numbers sometimes. It would be like sandwiching in a chapter on RSA crypto because it's interesting and number-y but still has no connection to linear algebra.