Hyperbolic Quaternions

Extract

It is well known that quaternions are intimately connected with spherical trigonometry, and in fact they reduce that subject to a branch of algebra. The question is suggested whether there is not a system of quaternions complementary to that of Hamilton, which is capable of expressing trigonometry on the surface of the equilateral hyperboloids. The rules of vector-analysts are approximately complementary to those of quaternions. In this paper I propose to show how they can be made completely complementary, and that, when so rectified, they yield the hyperbolic counterpart of the spherical quaternions.