Its initial discovery was not too late, but both Clifford and Maxwell died too young in 1879 and after their too early death there was no one left who could finalize the applications of this theory to physics.
In their absence, the geometric algebra theory was ignored and both the theory of vectors and the theory of electromagnetic field were simplified to forms which are good enough for restricted contexts, but which are nonetheless inconsistent and fail in more general cases (the so-called Maxwell differential equations are valid only in much more restricted conditions than the original integral equations of Maxwell).
As a child I have also learned the theory of vectors in the incorrect way, e.g. including the so-called "vectorial product", so I lost time later until understanding that it is not a vector, and then I lost more time until understanding that the so-called pseudovectors a.k.a. axial vectors and the so-called pseudoscalars are not independent entities that come from nowhere, but their existence is just the natural consequence of the properties of the vectors.
It would have been much more efficient if the complete theory of geometric algebra would have been taught from the beginning.
Its initial discovery was not too late, but both Clifford and Maxwell died too young in 1879 and after their too early death there was no one left who could finalize the applications of this theory to physics.
In their absence, the geometric algebra theory was ignored and both the theory of vectors and the theory of electromagnetic field were simplified to forms which are good enough for restricted contexts, but which are nonetheless inconsistent and fail in more general cases (the so-called Maxwell differential equations are valid only in much more restricted conditions than the original integral equations of Maxwell).
As a child I have also learned the theory of vectors in the incorrect way, e.g. including the so-called "vectorial product", so I lost time later until understanding that it is not a vector, and then I lost more time until understanding that the so-called pseudovectors a.k.a. axial vectors and the so-called pseudoscalars are not independent entities that come from nowhere, but their existence is just the natural consequence of the properties of the vectors.
It would have been much more efficient if the complete theory of geometric algebra would have been taught from the beginning.