How could the square of a vector be negative? And Hamilton was so positive about it. After the deepest research, the youth gave it up, and returned the books. He then died, and was never seen again. He had begun the study of Quaternions too soon.

— Oliver Heaviside, Electromagnetic Theory (1912)

Source: https://archive.org/details/electromagnetict03heavuoft/page/135/mode/2up

From Appendix K (vector analysis) of Electromagnetic Theory, about Hamilton's quaternions.

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