ATDTDA: 542 the "W" term

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

          Robin:
          So will someone please tell me what the "W" term is?

          Ray Easton:
          The so-called "scalar term" in a quaternion.  Every quaternion can be 
          written uniquely in the form w + x*i + y*j +z*k, where w, x, y, and z 
          are real numbers.

          So far as I can tell, in some quack science accounts of 
          Electro-magnetism, the vector analysis formulation of this theory is 
          held to be deficient  because there are features that can only be 
          properly accounted for by the use of quaternions with their w-term.


               To a degree which has pleasantly surprised the author, 
               Einstein's vision to unify gravity and electromagnetism 
               has been followed.  The construction of a new 
               4-dimensional geometry is dictated by insights garnered 
               from physics.  Events in spacetime are composed of a 
               scalar for time and a 3-vector for space.  The 
               four-dimensional topological algebraic field of 
               quaternions has the same structure, so quaternions 
               will be the starting point of this effort. 

http://tinyurl.com/2u5own

So, in the original context:

          . . . .intelligence of a Quaternionic Weapon, a means 
          to unloose upon the world energies hitherto 
          unimagined---hidden, de Decker would surely say 
          "innocently", inside the w term. 542

That would make the "W" term time? And as Whittaker was dealing with light and 
the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum:

Edmund Whittaker, A History of the Theories of Aether & Electricity, rev. and 
enlarged ed., 2 vol. (1951–53, reissued in 1 vol., 1989), is a detailed 
presentation of the development of electromagnetic theory in the 19th century. 

http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Whittaker.html

http://www.openlibrary.org/details/historyoftheorie00whitrich

This light/time function, would it be another expression of relativity?