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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:

Kåre Enga in Montana

about 12 hours ago
In response to "It's a Crime"

Thailand versus Montana versus New York versus Costa Rica.

Theft? Not in Thailand! Not a huge concern in Missoula, perhaps in NYC, definitely an issue in Costa Rica.

Violence? Not a huge concern in Thailand. More so in MT, NY and CR (where it wasn't a concern years ago), definitely a problem in Saint Louis and the US in general. El Salvador is known for violence.

Death by vehicle. Not a huge concern in either NY or MT. A rising problem in Costa Rica. Thailand is one of the worst places in the world in this respect.

You may be shot and killed in parts of the US but you're more likely to be run-over in Thailand.

1 Like

Simply Me

about 17 hours ago
In response to "It's a Crime"

I get it. The fear spreading jerks wants us to have an "us vs. them" attitude. The division gives them leverage. (they think)

1 Like

🌕 HuntersMoon

a day ago
In response to "Butt Of Course"

My wife tried waterskiing once... called it the 100-yard douche.

Talk about retaining water...

2 Like

Elisa the Bunny Stik

May 1, 2024 at 10:53am
In response to "Mad as Hell"

"But if you want to really see how anger is useful, you need to consider how it's used as a tool for manipulation."

This is a line that must be regarded with care. After all, there are people that get angry about the way they are being treated on a large scale and harness that anger to change their circumstances. There is some level of manipulation in this angry but still legitimate flavor of activism. We do have to consider the possibility that this angel's usefulness can have net benefits (such as environmental cleanup and protection; see the Live Canal as an example).

GeminiGem survived GoT

Apr 29, 2024 at 1:53pm
In response to "Supplementary"

Working in health care for a zillion years, I've heard it all. The whole thing about something being natural, therefore it would be good for a person is very, very, very...very prevalent. An internist I worked with had a fantastic comeback to that line of thinking. She would say, "Arsenic is natural, are you going to start taking that?"

1 Like

Lazy Writer est 4/24/2008

Apr 28, 2024 at 2:14pm
In response to "Revisited: "Exercise""

I will be 75 in July. My stepdaughter gave me a bike because I wanted to ride it again. Well, I started off shaky and stayed shaky...then I fell off it...A passing motorist stopped to help me get up...I have NOT been back on that bike and will not ever again.

🌕 HuntersMoon

Apr 28, 2024 at 10:43am
In response to "Revisited: "Exercise""

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

Elisa the Bunny Stik

Apr 27, 2024 at 10:33am
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 Montana

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 Montana

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.

July 20, 2020 at 12:01am

#988635

Man on the Moon

“If they can put a man on the moon, why can’t they put all of them there?”

PROMPT July 20th

In 1969, Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. Afterward, people commonly complained, “If they can put a man on the moon, why can’t they ______.” How would you finish that statement today?

make moon landing hoax conspiracy "theories" go away.

Seriously, this is the stupidest damn thing since flat-earth bullshit.

This nonsense pisses me off more than other nonsense, though. And I'll try to put the reason why into words, but I'm not sure I'll be successful.

There has always been an undercurrent of willful ignorance in humanity in general and the US in particular. I think people want absolutes, but there's no such thing, so there's backlash. "What do we really know, anyway? How dare we try to find the answers when we're merely human?" That sort of epistemological bullshit.

The Apollo program, political though it was, and born out of the worst case of national dick-measuring to ever consume two countries, was one of the greatest achievements of humankind. Taking a cue from the concentrated effort we made in World War II to construct nuclear weapons, we used the same sort of scientific/technological think-tank approach, not for the purpose of blowing people up (though that was always a hazard with the kind of propellants they used), but for a peaceful project.

And there's no doubt that it happened. I mean, we can be as certain about it as we can be about anything.

Hell, faking it in 1969 would have cost even more money than the actual moon landing did, and you'd have to somehow convince thousands of people to keep the cover-up a secret. People who worked on the project. People who covered it for the news. People who watched the launches. The astronauts themselves.

And yet... I suppose some of these know-nothings just can't wrap their heads around the idea that humankind can actually achieve anything. I really can't think of much else that would motivate the deniers, apart from an abiding contempt for themselves and their fellow humans. It's the same sort of mindset that makes them believe that we couldn't possibly have built the pyramids or Stonehenge or whatever, so it must have been aliens.

"I'm stupid and I couldn't have done it; therefore, no one else could have either."

I guess. I don't know.

To deny the achievement of landing dudes on the moon is to deny the fundamental potential of humanity itself.

So really, very little pisses me off more than this sort of thing. I'm not advocating suppression of freedom of speech, but such bullshit has to be met with reality, facts, and, yes, utter scorn.

I'm also not advocating punching the idiots who spout that crap.

But I don't blame Buzz Aldrin one bit for doing so.

8 Like • Comment • View 11 comments

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