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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

about 15 hours 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

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

November 3, 2021 at 12:01am

#1020692

Tourist Trap

I get the impression that today's prompt is meant to inspire fiction. I'm certainly not above writing fiction, but this hits a little too close to home.

PROMPT November 3^rd

You live in a tourist town. There's always an 'interesting' mix of visitors. But this year they are especially... different. In what way?

A few years ago, my city decided to remove one of the Confederate participation trophies that stood in a prominent location, taunting, among others, descendants of the people freed after the Civil War. This decision pissed off all the right people (pun intended), who descended upon my town from other parts of the country (including, amusingly, the North) and protested.

If it had stayed in the realm of protest, fine. One major founding principle of the US, promoted by someone who lived just outside of town at the time, is the guarantee of freedom of speech. I'm a fan. As much as I disagree with the ideologies of the protestors, they have the right to express their opinions and, in fact, I want them to speak up so I know who to avoid.

But of course, it got violent, several people were injured, and three died.

I'm sure you heard about the event, even if you're not in the US. It made my town a household word the world over, a representation of the beginnings of the New Civil War: Charlottesville.

What doesn't get mentioned enough is that almost everyone involved in being a racist asshole back then was from out of town. Tourists.

Thing is, I'm usually inclined to consider all sides (there are always more than just two) of any issue, but in this case, one side wants people to try to get along, while another side would like to see me and others dead or, at the very least, marginalized..

Oh, sure, I can pass as one of them, but if they got to know me, they would know I am the Enemy. "Jews will not replace us," they chanted, tiki torches held high as they marched on the grounds of UVA. Then they have the chutzpah to accuse me of intolerance for condemning them for racism.

That kind of rhetoric is alarming, but how much more dread was felt, every freaking day, by descendants of slaves walking by a statue honoring Robert E. Lee? "You don't matter," said the statue, its lips resolutely mute. "I worked in life to own your ancestors, and behold, people put me on a pedestal." It'd be like putting up a heroic statue of Heinrich Himmler.

The carpetbaggers called for the preservation of the statue in its prominent location, saying, among other things, that to remove it is to erase history. Erase history? Hardly. History is still in books -- oh, wait, I forgot, a lot of them don't bother to read. Okay, it's still in videos online. If anything, removing it is one step in erasing the worship of the losers on the wrong side of history.

I live in a country that's weirdly prudish. All it usually takes is one complaint, if it's from the right person, and a book is banned, a statue is draped to cover its stony genitals, or an art exhibit is closed because a child might see a *gasp* female nipple. But if you have a problem with seeing a statue of someone who fought for the ability of people of one race to own people of another race? Oh, suck it up, that was in the past.

And the war was indeed about slavery. Oh, I've heard the bullshit about "it was over states' rights." Yeah, states' rights to enable slavery.

Four years after the protests, war drums still echo.

This year, the statue finally came down, quietly and without further bloodshed. I have no idea what happened to it, and honestly, I don't give a shit. Someone posted a meme of a picture of it getting hauled away, with the caption: "Virgil, quick come see, there goes Robert E. Lee."

If you don't get the reference, look it up. I'm not in the mood to post music right now.

So yeah, come see lovely Charlottesville sometime. We like an interesting mix of visitors. Just leave your bigotry at home.

11 Like • Comment • View 12 comments

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