To add to your comment, quaternions predate rotational matrix operators by a considerable amount (1843 vs not exactly clear, ~1900 with Peano or ~1920 with Weyl), despite quaternions being much more challenging to manipulate. There are definitely simpler ways to view the same things.
There was a cottage industry of exotic hypercomplex numbers that disappeared when linear algebra matured to eclipse them.
In fact, Maxwell's Equations were originally derived with quaternions.
There was a cottage industry of exotic hypercomplex numbers that disappeared when linear algebra matured to eclipse them.
In fact, Maxwell's Equations were originally derived with quaternions.