Search where?

This Portfolio (cathartes02)

All of Writing.Com

◄ November ► 2020
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

Saturday, Jun. 1, 2024

8:55am EDT

Members: 808

Guests: 1,067

Total Online: 1,875

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:

Elisa the Bunny Stik

May 29, 2024 at 9:02am
In response to "Ordinary Average Guy"

I think we need to be careful about saying there's no difference in socializing between online and off. I saw the following in response to a comment about discussions of gender online and the stances taken by LGBTQ community members that are chronically online:

"Truth. I had to stop looking for queer spaces online because it was full of this and angry exclusion discourse. I found some queer spaces offline and it reminded me that most people are normal and chill."

This is a topic I will likely be visiting in my journal in July. I figured I'd at least get this response in here first as a warm-up.

1 Like

Elisa the Bunny Stik

May 28, 2024 at 1:46pm
In response to "Long in the Tooth"

I feel I was too busy as a teen to screw around in convenience stores. On the rare occasion I wasn't at school or working, I tended to hang out by myself. If I hung out with friends, it was usually at someone's house (rarely mine).

Elisa the Bunny Stik

May 27, 2024 at 11:42am
In response to "Olive It And More"

Every once in a while, someone will misread the order slip and give me green peppers, which are an abomination, instead of green olives.

They truly are an abomination. If you're going to put peppers on a pizza, make sure it's anything but those little soggy cardboard slice things. Hell, even poblanos would be a major upgrade.

1 Like

Elisa the Bunny Stik

May 27, 2024 at 11:38am
In response to "Coming Up the Pike"

Man, people on Fandom Secrets would be aghast at how much you like Strange New Worlds. Personally, I haven't seen much of it. However, I did watch an episode at the gym once and found it enjoyable. It gave me that fascinated feeling I had when watching The Next Generation as a kid.

1 Like

Elisa the Bunny Stik

May 27, 2024 at 11:13am
In response to "Burgundy"

I will admit that I'm not much of a wine drinker. I've had reds and whites but tend to prefer reds. Then again, when it comes to booze, I tend to prefer things that are more intense in flavor. White wines...tend not to be that way for me.

2 Like

Elisa the Bunny Stik

May 27, 2024 at 10:38am
In response to "Distrust the Process"

That being said, I do think that people going out of their way to demonize ultra-processed foods are causing just as many issues as lobbyists are. These folks' actions exacerbate eating disorders and nervous thinking around food insecurity in equal measure. I wish the conversation around this set of actions was louder.

3 Like

Elycia Lee ☮

May 27, 2024 at 10:31am
In response to "Distrust the Process"

To me, as long food is 100% natural, then it is healthy. Pretty much like fruits, veggies and rice. I know people have thoughts about whether rice is good or not, but it is natural food so... I shall go with that.

2 Like

Kåre Enga in Montana

May 25, 2024 at 3:13pm
In response to "Plan Solo"

I'm more introverted than extroverted, but my only apprehension involves language and cultural barriers.

I'm bi- or ambi- but... always annoying. I waver between wanting to be left alone and not wanting to be alone.

I make my adjustments as necessary.

But LANGUAGE and CULTURE: true barriers that can cause problems for some and angst for me. I love strangers but find it frustrating when I can't connect.

For Belgium: make those plans soon. Today's connectivity means booking lodging in advance. In the old days it was show-up-and-ask-if-they-have-a-room. Still possible but not recommended unless cost is not an issue.

I prefer staying in hostels but rarely join in 'events'. I have gone out with fellow travelers however.

Kåre Enga in Montana

May 25, 2024 at 2:58pm
In response to "Banned Camp"

I remember when the movie "Brokeback Mountain" received "F"s from folks who basically commented that they would never NEVER watch such filth. Even those who liked or enjoyed it missed the main theme of poverty (financial, cultural, individual...). Personally, I preferred the short story to the movie. Both made a point that America didn't/doesn't want to face: choice and lack of choice.

That said, if someone were to ban my poetry I could probably live off of the notoriety.

Burning at the stake though seems a more likely outcome.

2 Like

🌕 HuntersMoon

May 25, 2024 at 11:32am
In response to "Banned Camp"

"Any book worth banning is a book worth reading." Isaac Asimov

2 Like

November 28, 2020 at 12:01am

#999252

Wait, "Dust" Can Be A Verb Too?

What with the Cyber Weekend here at WDC, I figure it's time to have another Merit Badge Mini-Contest! It's been a while. Details below.

I suppose I should answer this prompt with "beer."

PROMPT November 28th

What’s on the top of your mind right now that you need to tell someone about?

But I won't.

I'm... not the world's greatest housekeeper. I tend to put things off and they get overwhelming so I put them off some more.

Yesterday, I decided to start small: with the spice rack in the kitchen.

You know, the whole purpose of drying and keeping spices is that they don't go bad quickly, so I never paid too much attention to expiration dates on them. But as I was wiping years of accumulated dust off of some of the bottles, I noticed that they had passed their "best of" date years ago.

In my defense, I haven't been using those. Mostly, these days, I use the garlic powder, oregano, and red pepper flakes, and those were recent purchases. Had I ever had need for the tarragon, for example, well, I'd have noticed that it expired in 2015 and discarded it in favor of buying a new bottle. And it didn't look bad; it had merely lost most of its scent And yes, I noticed the scent of others, so no, my olfactory apparatus isn't compromised by the Trump Mumps. (As an aside, that particular symptom scares me more than other reported symptoms such as kidney failure, lung scarring, brain damage, or death. Not being able to smell or taste would severely cramp my style.)

The worst offender wasn't a spice at all. It was a canister of beef bouillon that had an expiration date in -- I'd be embarrassed to admit this if I were an actual human -- 2000.

Again, I haven't been using it. It's just been sitting there. Since the last millennium. Hell, I wouldn't have bought the thing in 2000 but some time before then, so it's likely the canister's old enough to legally drink.

Thing is, it's probably still viable. Probably. I wasn't about to take any chances. Into the trash went the little cubes, and into the recycling bin went the plastic bottle.

I'm hoping that this newfound interest in cleaning isn't transient, like most of my interests. The spices took over an hour to clean up and organize, and they take up maybe one cubic foot of volume in total. My house is 2000 square feet in area and 20 feet high, so... math... 39,999 cubic feet to go. In fairness, a lot of that volume is air. Dusty air... but air.

But I did also manage to take the time to deep-clean a fraction of the refrigerator, where I found a rock-solid box of baking powder that's probably been there since the first GW Bush administration, and bottles of tonic water that, if they were people, would be in middle school now. Yes, tonic water has an expiration date. Yes, I dumped the contents down the drain. I'll just have to keep drinking my gin straight.

So... 39,998 cubic feet to go.

I'm terrified of moving the refrigerator. Not even the gods know what it looks like behind there, or underneath.

Now, I don't want you to get the impression that my entire house is a mess. A good bit of clutter, sure, but the floors are clean, the food preparation areas are spotless, and I keep the bathrooms shiny. I have a cleaning service that comes in once a month to keep me honest about that sort of thing, but the only one who can do anything about the 25 years of accumulated stuff is me. I just tend to put things away and forget about them; they become fixtures. That's what I'm trying to do something about.

On the plus side, neat and organized people never make the kinds of awesome discoveries that I do. For every expired pack of baking powder, I find at least one interesting thing (not usually in the fridge though) that reminds me of something or someone from the past. This is not always a good thing, because that "someone" could be one of my ex-wives (they both lived here), but sometimes I feel like Howard Carter in Tutankhamen's tomb.

So that's what's on my mind these days. I figured I'd better write it down because maybe by doing so it'll keep me from putting it off further. The only way for me to actually get any cleaning done is to use it as a procrastination tool for something else, but I haven't figured out what the other thing is that I'm procrastinating. It has to be something that's even more distasteful to me than cleaning, but there's not much in that category. I hope it's not something important.

But also for the record, no, I'm not in the least bit interested in going minimalist. I've ranted about that shit in here before; it's mostly promoted to encourage even more consumerism.

That's no excuse for keeping expired tonic water around, though.

It's a good thing gin doesn't go bad.

Merit Badge Mini-Contest!

What's your least favorite chore? Doesn't have to be related to housecleaning as in today's entry, but it can be. Comment below. My favorite -- as defined entirely subjectively by me -- will earn the commenter a Merit Badge! As usual, you have until midnight tonight WDC time (that's the end of Saturday).

13 Like • Comment • View 16 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/11-28-2020