Matrix vs. Linear Algebra

Question

Currently we have two tags matrix and linear-algebra. These tags have a rather large overlap, in fact (after a clean up) of the 30 questions tagged linear-algebra the following are the questions not tagged with matrix

• Arnold's Cat Map

• Self Referential Polynomials

• Linear Independence

• Solve a Linear Equation

• Find the Cross Product

And all of these questions are not about matrices, (however some do have methods of solution that involve matrices.)

On the other hand matrix, has about 100 questions with only 25 of them being tagged linear-algebra.

Should one of these tags be a synonym of the other? If so which one?

Answer 1

Keep them separate

A good number of the matrix challenges are about grids of numbers that do not represent any linear transformation. Conversely, the five linear-algebra challenges you note do not involve matrices, but are about vectorspaces, independence, abstract transformations, etc. Though these are a minority, I think it would not be accurate to tag them matrix. So, I just suggest not making them synonyms, and using both tags where both apply.