Search where?

This Portfolio (cathartes02)

All of Writing.Com

◄ November ► 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
Archive				RSS

Offsite Blogs

· Waltz Travel Blog

Create New Item

Read & Review

Community

Browse By Type

Browse By Genre

Writing Resources

Sunday, Apr. 28, 2024

11:39am EDT

Members: 999

Guests: 1,125

Total Online: 2,124

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:

🌕 HuntersMoon

about an hour ago
In response to "Revisited: "Exercise""

So, you're saying that now you pedal your ass differently?

Elisa the Bunny Stik

a day ago
In response to "Pleasure and Pain"

it illustrates why it's important to have people from different backgrounds, with different worldviews, working on scientific research.

This right here is why I get rather irritated by people poo-pooing college these days. I feel like that attitude effectively shits on minority populations that may not have strong finances but do possess persistent curiosity and want to learn about various subjects in-depth. In the 90s, these groups were exclusively told to go to trade schools even if they had the aptitude for college education. Nowadays the blanket "Everyone should consider a trade" mantra employs a more subtle (but still abundant) form of discrimination. I'm so over it.

1 Like

Kåre Enga in Udon Thani

Apr 25, 2024 at 3:16am
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

Apr 25, 2024 at 3:09am
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

Apr 25, 2024 at 2:58am
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

November 17, 2021 at 12:01am

#1021786

The Butler Did It

Yeah, I'm going with the cliché here. Or am I?

PROMPT November 17^th

You have been invited to a posh dinner party hosted by one of the wealthiest people in your small town. When you arrive, your host is does not greet you, and the butler informs you they have been missing last night. A quick search by all the party goers finds him/her dead. Their body is in a small clearing in the woods behind the mansion. Being a modern day Nancy Drew/Joe Hardy type of person, you begin your own investigation. What do you find that leads you to the murderer. Who is the murderer? How was the host killed?

I mean, come on, everyone knows the butler did it. But since everyone knows that, obviously the butler wouldn't have done it because he'd be the prime suspect. But knowing that everyone knows the butler did it, thus removing suspicion from the butler, brings suspicion back on the butler because they know that he knows that they know that he knows...

Obviously, this is fiction, because I don't get invited to those sorts of parties. But see, the host was trying to make nice to me because he wanted to hire me as a ghost writer. What Mr. Grabcash didn't remember was that, about ten years ago, he hired me to do some web design work, which I did, and it was remarkable (for the time).

And the cheap bastard stiffed me out of my fee.

Since then, I've been waiting for a chance to exact revenge, but Grabcash is surrounded by flunkies, minions, and bodyguards, so what could I do?

Well, I took a page out of the disinformation playbook, and started spreading rumors. This was only partially successful, at first, as Grabcash became convinced that the gardener, Elrod, was boning Mrs. Grabcash. I was hoping to hear about a divorce, but no, all he did was fire Elrod, which wasn't my intent (I made sure to hook him up with a venture capitalist in another town, but he really did shag that one's wife and I have no idea what happened to him after that).

Thing is, though, I believe in asymmetric warfare and nuclear revenge -- provided, of course, that I'm on the giving end and not the receiving end. Still salty about the $799.95 he owed me -- closer to $1000 now, because of interest and late fees -- I had to hatch the perfect plan.

Grabcash liked to take a stroll around the grounds most evenings. I know in stories you always hear about "oh, so-and-so goes out at the same time every single day and does the exact same thing, so that's when we move." This is often the most unrealistic part of heist or mystery dramas, because seriously, no one is that regular, even if they eat nothing but Fiber One. Mr. G's evening constitutional schedule was nowhere near predictable, except that it was always sometime after 3 pm and before whatever time sunset happened to be at that time of year. If, of course, he bothered to go out at all.

Oh, yeah, how did I know this? Because I was boning Mrs. Grabcash, and she told me.

Anyway, the whole thing was her idea, which was a good thing, because she was the only one able to stash the silver and some of her jewelry in a secret compartment in the butler's quarters that even the butler didn't know about. After what happened to Elrod, clearly Mr. G would, upon finding out about the butler's secret stash (which of course even the butler wasn't aware of), fire the butler, and of course the butler (I suppose I should note that his name was Aragorn, because even his parents hated him) didn't want to be fired, so he did the only thing that made any sense, which was to wait in hiding with Torgo the bodyguard's sniper rifle from Afghanistan. One shot to the head, bam, no more threat of being fired and Torgo (not his real name; he got it from a movie) gets fingered.

Only problem is Torgo didn't do it; that's an obvious setup. Once Aragorn's secret stash is discovered - much to everyone's surprise, especially Aragorn's, though everyone will think he's faking it - it will be absolutely clear that the butler did it, using Torgo's rifle which happened to have Aragorn's fingerprints all over the barrel because Mrs. G had put them there late one night while Aragorn slept.

No one knew I had sniper training; that was a different life and I've changed names three times since then. And no one could possibly suspect that anyone would off Mr. Grabcash over a measly $1000 unpaid bill, but hey, it's the principle of the thing. Plus now me and the former Mrs. G can scramble off to Tahiti once the dust settles.

I'll even give Torgo a raise.

7 Like • Comment • View 6 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/11-17-2021