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Essence of linear algebra preview

43 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
11 HN users recommended this course7 months2016–2018 score 9.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN repeatedly recommends the series as the best intuition-first, visual introduction to linear algebra and a benchmark for clear math explanation.

A five-minute preview of 3Blue1Brown's Essence of Linear Algebra series, which uses animation to build geometric intuition for topics from a standard linear algebra course.

“3Blue1Brown's youtube series I cannot recommend highly enough.” (HN, 2017)

5 strong recommendations · 7 recommendations · 2 citations · Courses · intro

14 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@wyc Jan 2017 Strongly recommends
on HN thread How a Kalman filter works, in pictures (2015)
Wow, this lecturer is great! I think this is the most intuitive explanation of Kalman filters I've seen yet. I've seen other lecturers try to quickly jump into state space and lose students with big matrices. I would have paid good money for this if I wasn't already familiar with the material. The clarity is up there with The Essence of Linear Algebra: [this video] Trading math videos on the Internet--definitely nerds.
Benchmark of clarity for math explanation.
@makmanalp Sep 2017 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Special Linear Systems and Cholesky Factorization for Programmers
For linear algebra basics, I also especially recommend 3Blue1Brown's youtube channel and his "Essence of" series: [this video] I've never seen the material presented more clearly - it's completely visual and focused on building intuition first.
Visual intuition-first linear algebra.
@hexane360 Dec 2017 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Down with Determinants (1995)
If anyone's looking for a (high level) overview of linear algebra, I'd highly recommend 3blue1brown's video series: [this video] It's mostly graphical, and is really helpful in forming and cementing an intuition for linear algebra.
Graphical overview forming intuition.
@dvddgld Mar 2018 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Ask HN: How to self-learn math?
Read more
Two quick things I can recommend without hesitation, which focus on an intuitive understanding of concepts: 1. Essence of Linear Algebra mini-series - [this video] 2. Better Explained website - [link] YouTube has a lot of high quality math content, it definitely helped through university. It's also worth mentioning the Stanford U courses. The main takeaway I have for you is learn the concepts intuitively first, then spend the time to play around with them on paper until they sink in. Some things will be easy, some will be frustrating, much like programming you will walk away from a frustrating problem and have an epiphany while doing something completely different. All the best and have fun!
Intuitive understanding of concepts.
@c3534l Nov 2016 Recommends
on HN thread Matrix Multiplication
It at least cuts down on the amount of time you have to explain the mechanics of it. This is more intuitive to memorize than an algorithm composed of bullet-point instructions. For intuition, I highly recommend [this video] - I think both the intuition and practicing the details should be learned.
Intuition for matrices.
@espeed Feb 2017 Recommends
on HN thread Why does e to pi i equal -1? (2015) [video]
See the "Essence of Linear Algebra" (visualized) by the same author -- it should give you more intuition into the nature of the transformations: Essence of Linear Algebra [this video]
Intuition for transformations.
@espeed Feb 2017 Recommends
on HN thread Big Picture of Calculus (2010) [video]
Have you seen the Essence of Linear Algebra video series posted to HN a few days ago? Seeing the geometric transformations animated gives you intuition hard to develop otherwise: Essence of Linear Algebra (visualized) [this video]
Animated geometric transformations build intuition.
@afarrell Apr 2017 Recommends
on HN thread Ask HN: How do you unwind at the end of a day?
Ooooh, these are nice. Here are mine: Extra History: stories of historical incidents — [link] Real Engineering: mostly materials science — [link] - Wendover Productions — mostly transportation - [link] Tom Scott: a bit of everything — [link] - Jay foreman: Urban planning and maps — [link] The Engineer Guy: Manufacturing — [link] Practical Engineering: Mostly Civil Engineering — [link] 3Blue1Brown: Math, visualized to me more intuitive — [this video]
Math visualized intuitively.
@skadamat Dec 2017 Recommends
on HN thread Communicating Advanced Mathematics to Kids
Read more
So many things I could say about this, but I"ll let Alan Kay speak for me - [link] Alan talks about how ideas in Calculus could be manifested from an early age and a richness in understanding built up as they aged up: - at very young ages, kids really respond well through "doing" / the enactive channel. When asked to draw a circle, kids in Papert's group would first emulate what a LOGO turtle would do by rotating their body in a circle (making tiny increments in x and y). - as they got a bit older, the visual / iconic channel was more developed and they could understand the abstraction of a circle on pencil/paper and how the concepts carried over there - closer to early teens, symbols were much easier to grasp and relate to, etc. With this context in mind, there have been some cool efforts to mix the second and third channels I just mentioned to communicate advanced math concepts. Vi Hart and Grant Sanderson's youtube channels come to mind. Here are my favorite videos by Grant: - "What does it feel like to invent math": [link] - On the visual intuition behind a hard problem on the Putnam exam - "The hardest problem on the hardest test": [link] - From vectors to matrices to vector spaces to higher-level ideas like the link between linear algebra and calculus: "Essence of linear algebra" series: [this video] What I especially like about Grant's videos, is that he often walks through what a mathematician would do, the questions she would ask, etc.
Vectors to matrices to vector spaces.
@dyarosla Dec 2017 Recommends
on HN thread Matrices from a geometric perspective
For an article like this I find that static visualizations aren't anywhere near as effective as dynamic ones found in a similar explanation here (3Blue1Brown on Linear Algebra Transformations) [this video]
Dynamic visualizations of transformations.
@hiaux0 Mar 2018 Recommends
on HN thread Ask HN: How to self-learn math?
Read more
+1 And definitely follow through his "pause and ponder" sections. If you want to build up your maths skills, it is crucial to learn how to think in the maths way. Like becoming a good programmer involves writing lots of code yourself, or to become a good dancer you need to practice your steps. For maths it's abstract thinking. Appreciation of maths is one thing, having the discipline to self-study a whole other. Edit. Regarding your 2nd Edit: His videos are made for the broadest audience possible. I'd recommend picking any video whose topic interests you the most at the moment. You will see what knowledge you lack (take notes of these!) and can expand from there. Be it to watch his maths fundamental ((1)) series [0],[1] or just rewatch. ((1)): As in any other things, knowing your fundamentals is significant to the understanding of a topic. It won't help you at all if you can apply (copy paste) some machine learning techniques if you don't know about linear algebra at all. [0]: [this video] [1]: [link]
Math fundamentals series.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@hal9000xp Sep 2017 Cites it
on HN thread Linear Algebra for AI
Is there any book which actually explains where matrix and its rules come from? Instead of throwing on you matrix multiplication rules in dogmatic way so you blindly follow them like mindless robot? I know there are lectures in YouTube from 3Blue1Brown : [this video] So I want a book which covers linear algebra in the similar manner.
Mentioned as existing lectures.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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