[ExI] imaginary numbers: RE: new entry from symphony of science

[Mike Dougherty]

2010/11/26 spike <spike66 at att.net>

> Darren, really are a skerjillion real world applications for imaginary
> numbers.  It is actually very unfortunate that they were ever given that
> name.  Calling them real and imaginary makes it sound like the imaginary
> numbers are somehow not **real**.  {8^D
>
>
>
> A number with both a real and an imaginary part is called a complex
> number.  That is another **terrible** term, because it scares
> non-mathematics types.
>
>
>
> They should have been called something different.  I would propose the
> reals be called horizontal numbers and imaginary called vertical numbers.
> Then if it has both, it is an off-axis number, because it is on neither the
> horizontal or vertical axis.
>
>
haha.  Given your new nomenclature I would use horizontal numbers to measure
length and width but vertical numbers for height?  You say off-axis numbers
aren't complex?  How can you mix length/width numbers with height numbers?
What's an axis?  When you draw that diagonal line through the giant plus
sign, why does the XY plane tip over into the virtual/perspective dimension
so the up-down axis becomes Z?  So simple for those with an aptitude,
otherwise unintelligible for those without.

I think they're great names (real, imaginary, complex) because they're
ideally domain-specific nerd words.  Imaginary numbers really do require
imagination to grok i^2 = -1.  I'd love to see that represented in a
visually intuitive way*.  I understand that the symbol describes a concept
that is only communicable after the semantics of the language are conveyed,
but without the agreement of those symbols/rules is there an obvious way to
discover imaginary numbers?

* assumes visual-spatial thinking is intuitive, which may not be true for
many.  It would be interesting to compare visualization ability of the
average 2010 adult with historical mathematicians.  Have decades of TV &
video games honed our visual thinking, possibly at the expense of other
modalities?
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