Search where?

This Portfolio (cathartes02)

All of Writing.Com

◄ October ► 2021
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31
Archive				RSS

Offsite Blogs

· Waltz Travel Blog

Create New Item

Read & Review

Community

Browse By Type

Browse By Genre

Writing Resources

Friday, Apr. 26, 2024

11:19pm EDT

Members: 858

Guests: 6,111

Total Online: 6,969

Complex Numbers

by Robert Waltz

Rated: 18+ · Book · Personal · #1196512

Not for the faint of art.

Complex Numbers

A complex number is expressed in the standard form a + bi, where a and b are real numbers and i is defined by i^2 = -1 (that is, i is the square root of -1). For example, 3 + 2i is a complex number.

The bi term is often referred to as an imaginary number (though this may be misleading, as it is no more "imaginary" than the symbolic abstractions we know as the "real" numbers). Thus, every complex number has a real part, a, and an imaginary part, bi.

Complex numbers are often represented on a graph known as the "complex plane," where the horizontal axis represents the infinity of real numbers, and the vertical axis represents the infinity of imaginary numbers. Thus, each complex number has a unique representation on the complex plane: some closer to real; others, more imaginary. If a = b, the number is equal parts real and imaginary.

Very simple transformations applied to numbers in the complex plane can lead to fractal structures of enormous intricacy and astonishing beauty.

http://www.ddewey.net/mandelbrot/

Signature for Honorable Mentions in 2018 Quill Awards

A signature for exclusive use of winners at the 2019 Quill Awards

Signature for those who have won a Quill Award at the 2020 Quill Awards

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Kåre Enga in Udon Thani

a day ago
In response to "Going to the Dogs"

I have ants in Thailand. Will I miss them in Montana? No.

Would it be nice to have a cat and a dog, here or there? Yes, but I have struggles keeping my neglected plants alive.

Not every situation is suitable for everything or everybody.

Kåre Enga in Udon Thani

a day ago
In response to "Tipped Out"

I don't tip. In my travels I rarely find tipping the norm.

I also don't haggle.

When you add the tip... the true cost of America becomes evident. But what would I know? I travel while others who have double my income can't pay rent.

Kåre Enga in Udon Thani

a day ago
In response to "Reality Cubed"

My dreams may be different from your dreams but if we share them with others then some form of the dream may live on. Regardless, if we don't eat we die. "Joy gives us wings." "Reality bites."

Aiva Raine

Apr 24, 2024 at 4:26pm
In response to "Tipped Out"

Agreed. I'll tip and well, for actual waitstaff at restaurants. I'll tip appropriately for bell-staff who assists with luggage at hotels, the more luggage, the bigger the tip. I'll give a tip to the valet as well. Beyond that- I don't tip. Certainly no tip for the fast food workers, coffee baristas, grocery store clerks, etc.

It annoys me to no end that we're being asked to tip for all kinds of jobs where they are being paid an hourly wage. I've worked as a waitress when I was young and my daughter currently does. In those jobs- she absolutely depends upon proper tipping to make a decent wage. And I hate the fact that she is dependent upon tips to do so.

It leaves women especially at the mercy of arsh**() on whether she wants to accept hostile, negative, sexist, harassing, demeaning, and negative behavior from her customers in order to make a living. It condones people treating their waitstaff like shite in order to get paid. While there is much improvement from the 30 years ago when I was working as a waitress in the skimpy outfits we were forced to wear- it's still an issue at non-chain, independent owned restaurants and diners.

Women are left to the mercies of jerk customers and their only recourse is the manager who they have to hope supports their waitstaff rather than the jerk customer. Tipping should be eliminated. All employees should be paid a livable wage and waitstaff especially should not be dependent upon tolerating crappy to obscene behavior from customers in order to make a living.

But, until that happens- I always tip at least 20% and often times more. Very rarely have I tipped lower and the service in those situations was abysmal and they still got 10%.

1 Like

GeminiGem of House Lannister

Apr 23, 2024 at 6:51pm
In response to "Going to the Dogs"

I don't understand the intersection, either. I lived in a much smaller city and found that having dogs was a hassle (although it didn't stop me), what with the complainey neighbors, the extra licensing, etc. I live in a rural location now and it works great. I can't wrap my head around living in NYC with or without a dog, although I like the idea of a place that issues a canine and supplies upon moving there. Can that please be a thing?

1 Like

Lazy Writer est 4/24/2008

Apr 23, 2024 at 3:31pm
In response to "Going to the Dogs"

I love my little dog...but I live in a biggish house with a fenced backyard.

1 Like

Aennaytte: Free & Wild in GoT

Apr 23, 2024 at 3:14pm
In response to "That's Cole"

I knew and ate Kohlrabi before I ever heard of kale. Kohlrabi is so much better in every way.

That last quoted sentence is hilarious. I am glad that I wasn't bred to be a Brussels Sprout.

1 Like

Aennaytte: Free & Wild in GoT

Apr 23, 2024 at 3:11pm
In response to "Cash Stash"

The discussion of money is an interesting one. Remember the recent collapse of a few banks? I think it was about a year or so ago?
Yes, deposits were FDIC insured up to $250,000 per depositor. But some people and companies had more money in that bank than the FDIC was insuring.
I never followed up on what happened to those people. I don't run in circles of people who own that much cash.

My accounting professor took half a period to explain to us what happened and how the bank went from Silicone Valley darling to dead so fast.

He also told us that the value we give money is not backed by anything except our hope and faith that our economy will keep going.

We didn't discuss whether the value of money needed a lower income class of people.

1 Like

Aennaytte: Free & Wild in GoT

Apr 23, 2024 at 3:04pm
In response to "Revisited: "Hack This""

In my last psychology class, we discussed the evolution of the brain. It is now settled science that we evolved to have not only larger, but also vastly more powerful brains than most other animals because we learned how to cook (process) our food.
Although we are only about 1/4 to 1/3 of a normal gorilla, we eat half of the calories in a day. Not only that, we prepare the food in a way that we get to use more of the calories that we ingest.
The result is that our brain takes up more space in our noggin than a gorilla brain takes up in his noggin. Not only that, each of our brain cells is smaller, so we can fit exponentially more of those into our head.

Now, using all that goodness ...

1 Like

Aennaytte: Free & Wild in GoT

Apr 23, 2024 at 2:58pm
In response to "Hope for Hops"

Wait! Why are beer and coffee affected by climate change? That wasn't supposed to happen. All we had to do was have a boat by the side of the house for when the sea levels rise and beg our property insurance to cover fire damage. How are we supposed to remember all of that if we don't get coffee to wake us up in the morning so that we can think and beer at night to dull our sense of doom?

October 13, 2021 at 12:01am

#1019239

Meat the Press

It's a good thing I'm tackling this now. Today and going into tomorrow, I'll need to be on a liquid diet. And not my usual liquid diet, either. So I expect to be mind-destroyingly hungry, which is never how I want to be when I'm reading or writing about food.

Halfway through "Journalistic Intentions"

[18+] with

American Butchery

A while back, I encountered an article that talked about a food vendor that had been excavated in Pompeii. I don't remember what the original article was, but here's NPR's take on it.

The fascinating thing about this, for me anyway, wasn't just how well-preserved the building was; that's pretty normal for Pompeii from what I understand. Nor was it how they were able to identify nearly 2,000 year old remnants of the food served there. No, my takeaway (pun intended) from this find is how, even that long ago, people went to what are essentially fast-food restaurants. While I don't think they had drive-thru windows for chariots, the idea of walking into a place and ordering prepared food from a picture menu is not, as some would insist, an especially new, modern, or American invention.

The defining feature of civilization is specialization. And civil engineering, of course, but that's really part of specialization (they call prostitution the "oldest profession," but someone had to build a road to the whorehouse, and that someone was a civil engineer). Specialization enables a person to focus on one or a few jobs, and do them well, rather than trying to do everything themselves and fucking up most of it.

With specialization came the need to trade for services. At first, this was probably some kind of barter system, but when coinage was invented, things became much easier. Say you're a blacksmith, and you want, I don't know, wood for a tool handle. Sure, you can trade an axe head or two for some of the wood chopped, but what if the woodcutter already has all the axes he needs? Then you'd have to figure out what the woodcutter actually wants. A new pig, maybe. So then you have to make a more complex trade: horseshoes to a farmer for a pig, and then you gotta haul the pig out to the woodcutter to get the lumber you need. Coinage simplifies the process: you simply pay the woodcutter with shiny metal portraits of the Emperor or whatever, and then the woodcutter can pay for his own damn pig, leaving you more time to make swords or plowshares or whatever.

When it comes to specialization, though, few human needs are more basic than having food to eat. Hence, the butcher.

Now, I know a guy who bought a farm. Not the farm, but a farm; he's very much alive last time I checked, which was about a week ago. The idea was he and his wife could have their own livestock, and learn how to slaughter them for eatin'. Lots of people do that without necessarily owning a farm; I've also known quite a few deer hunters who were well-versed in the arcane practice of field-dressing venison.

But these two bit off more than they could chew, as they needed to have actual 21st century jobs in addition to the whole farm thing, and as I could have told them if they'd asked, trying to run a farm is a full-time job in itself (which is why I don't do it). So they took to delivering their livestock to a local butcher, who turned pigs into chops and delicious bacon. Well, it would have been delicious, but they oversalted the meat, but that's another story.

I think they made it an ethical choice: if we're going to eat meat, we should go whole hog (look, just assume every pun in this entry is intended; it's easier that way) and raise the animals ourselves, and take them through every step of the process. We're invested, that way. Of course, not eating meat wasn't an option, because meat is tasty.

Then they lost the farm, moved to a suburb, then to the middle of a city, and now they're back in the countryside again, but they get their meat from a grocery store as Nature intended.

What's my point? Well, I'm not sure that I have one, except, to get all pretentious about it, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Everything sounds more pretentious in French, except maybe the word for seal (the animal with the flippers), which is phoque, and that's pronounced exactly like a certain four-letter anglo-saxonism.

Also, though, I think I'm trying to say that my friend and his wife may have had a point: it's good to know where we're ultimately getting our food. As I've mentioned too many times, I spent my childhood on a farm, so I had a pretty damn good idea already, and yet I have no problem buying ground beef at a supermarket. This guy grew up in a suburb or city or something, so didn't have that first-hand knowledge.

Some people learn the awful truth and swear off meat entirely. I don't do that myself, obviously, but I understand the ethics behind it. The steaks can get pretty high. (Okay, yeah, I forced that one.) Hell, if science ever manages to realize the potential of vat-grown meats, I'd totally switch to that. But either way, I think it's worse to mentally divorce yourself from the process of turning a steer into delicious steaks and hamburgers.

Consequently, I took the time to watch the entire video that served as the prompt for today's entry, and I'm linking it here.

2 Like • Comment • View 4 comments

© Copyright 2024 Robert Waltz (UN: cathartes02 at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Robert Waltz has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.

Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/profile/blog/cathartes02/day/10-13-2021

Site Links:

Resources:

Need help?

Please post questions in
our support forum.

Places of Interest: Unique Wedding Invitations for unique wedding needs. Color Copiers found here.
Baby Names can be hard to pick. Hands-free hygenic toilet seats covers. Dramatic Music rocks.
Vampires are people too. Write Poetry here. Try this Stock Market quiz.
Teaching is a noble job. Get info on Tax Refunds.

All Writing.Com images are copyrighted and may not be copied / modified in any way.
All other brand names & trademarks are owned by their respective companies.

Generated in 0.79 seconds at 11:19pm on Apr 26, 2024 via server web2.