Quaternions vs. Einstein's four-vectors

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Why did physicists abandon the use of quaternions? Can you tell me some of the differences between quaternions and Einstein's four-vectors used in special relativity?
 
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A more methodical mathematical approach is the Clifford Algebra, which includes subspaces like the complex numbers and quaternians. A modern approach is Geometric Algebra. You might be interested in some of this history
 
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