Imaginary Number - Sixty Symbols

Whether you call it "i" or "j", this is one symbol which is hard to fathom. More at http://www.sixtysymbols.com/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• imaginary
• number
• sixty
• symbols

[Versudan]

I'm an accountant. I don't like the idea of something like this. At all.

[derick1259]

"sqrt(-1) love you!" - Markus Persson.

[subh1]

@dekmaskin I interpret as a mathematical construction rather than a "physical concept". It is just an intermediate quantity (in a mathematical calculation) that makes much of the math easy. However, at the end, we need to get rid of it to get something "physical". For example, the probability density by taking norm of a wave function in QM, or the individual real components of a complex current in EE.

[LeconsdAnalyse]

The clip is referring to the role of the imaginary unit in physics!

For example, why does it appear in the Schrödinger equation?

[IamBread18]

It's i, not j. !@@!!@

[karlkid333]

@TriMiro8107 I chuckled when I heard i labeled "immeasurable" and "not an observable physical quantity." I might as well declare "3 doesn't exist because we can't measure it to infinite precision." Such is the perspective of a scientist. Mathematicians have different goals entirely.

[mynameismatt2010]

Why don't they show this on the first day of Algebra 2 in high school? I might have passed if I understood what they so plainly stated in such a short video. I guess that's what happens when you're math teacher looks more like a walrus than a man...

[ashwinnarayanVlog]

Dark side of the engineers ... I LOLed at that!

[xTheGerbilx]

e^(i*pi) + 1 = 0

I shat a brick when I realised that :P everything comes together!

[engelteir]

we started using " i " in year 8 at school.

[quidproquo2004]

I love imaginary numbers baby: r*exp(j*theta) = r*[cos(theta) + j*sin(theta)]

[dekmaskin]

The concept of imaginary numbers is very disturbing and unnatural to me :( Only good thing about it is that it's really easy to use :D