all -

I just came up with a couple of very provocative math ideas w/ immediate applications to applied physics.

The problem is that I do not know of any software that can handle n x n x n x n (4th order) matrices. I can do it piecewise in excel (ugh)...

I have mathematica, but it doesn't seem to give me a good representation.

What I would like is the ability to manipulate the matrices both merely as matrix elements (get Jacobians, etc.) as well as the ability to make tensors, too (so here, rank 2 and higher). Of course, this would mean the ability to define coordinate systems, etc.

Ideally, the matrix would be represented in usual form. Then, one could perform algebra on them (column vectors, mutliply etc.), but most critically, be able to visualize the results (w/ appropriate false representations for the higher [n>3] dimensions)...

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!!

Hope everyone is having some kicka#s holidays, getting loaded and such!

- just finished angrily spinning my solids

what about doing a perfect cube model and then skewing it (at a different angle)?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor#Tensor_software

No/little native support but there are plenty of modular addons

You can't visualise properly a 4 rank tensor on a screen. You can do a 3 rank tensor by perspective, looking like a cube of entries, but not a total 4 rank one. You'd have to rotate the hypercube of entries and see 3d cubic sections as it rotates.