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

[John Clark]

On Nov 26, 2010, at 9:06 PM, spike wrote:

> Here’s a mathematical comment that will blow your mind if you think about it hard enough, and one which also has real world applications:
>    
> e^(i*pi) = −1

I think it's even better if you express it as e^(i*PI) +1 =0 because that way the 5 most important numbers in mathematics e,i,PI,one and zero are all expressed in one short equation. Benjamin Peirce was the most important teacher of mathematics at Harvard in the 19'th century, after deriving that equation he turned to his students and said:

"Gentlemen that is surely true, it is paradoxical; we cannot understand it and we don't know what it means. But we have proven it, and therefore we know it must be the truth."

 John K Clark  


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