Imaginary friends of mathematics.

[Anymouse]

Forgive my lack of training on the subject of higher maths. (I only have been to high school, the US Navy, and now edit Romance novels).

A thought occurred to me: mathematicians have imaginary friends, too. Just like theists. Imaginary numbers: for example, the square root of -1.

Considering this, I went further, as an atheist might to challenge the claims propounded for a deity by a theist, one example being argument by absurdity.

So if we have this imaginary number i, that only exists to define the square root of negative numbers (you cannot give an example of i apples, for instance), what happens if you take the square root of i? Does the entire body of mathematics collapse into a black hole, or does the mathematician's brain short?

James. Always more absurdities. Always.