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bethorien
· 6 years ago
· FIRST
Imaginary is commonly considered to be a rather inaccurate term. They can't be used in the normal sense of straight up counting with but they are just as existent as every other number (in the sense that technically all of math is a human machination.) A much better term is that of complex (which is used to describe something base of both real and imaginary parts) which better conveys what it is
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spiderwoman
· 6 years ago
Imaginary numbers are more of just failures in our mathematic system. However, it's an inevitable failure because there would always be some failure. We just kinda make it up when we find a flaw like sqroot(-1) equals 'i' even though it can't exist. We turned a letter into a symbol for a concept that doesn't exist in our mathematic system in order to make it exist.
niriel
· 6 years ago
I would hardly call it a failure when it brings actual closure to algebra. All these functions that had no answers? Now they do, and not only that but the output is in the same Field as the input. Other numbers don't do that. Look at split-complex numbers for example, or even dual numbers which are great for calculus but don't provide algebraic closure.
spiderwoman
· 6 years ago
An imaginary number multiplied by itself can equal a real number. The square root of negative one squared is one.
urlizard
· 6 years ago
... We invented them to solve problems
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porch_light
· 6 years ago
Instead it caused even more.
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9greenlizards
· 6 years ago
no it just solved what it was supposed to solve and then opened new questions, that’s called progress
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funkmasterrex
· 6 years ago
what is with multiple lizards.
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