What’s a Tensor?

Unpacking a common data science structure

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The concept of a Tensor was created in 1900 by two Italian mathematicians, Tullio Levi-Civita and Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro, and as is common, they built upon the work of other mathematicians. The Wikipedia page for “Tensor” begins:

In mathematics, a tensor is an algebraic object that describes a (multilinear) relationship between sets of…