(June 28, 2015 at 5:53 am)robvalue Wrote: It is bizarre! You're right, they are no more mysterious than regular numbers, they just have their own rules.
In some ways things make more sense in the complex plane, because then any order n polynomial has n roots instead of anything from 0 to n roots. It's... complete? Is that the word? Been a while since my studiesIt complements the real numbers to provide roots to all polynomials, not just ones that behave themselves!
I consider myself somewhat fortunate in no longer remembering how to do it, but in sparky school (more than 30 years ago) I was pretty good at complex math. I even was able to write software for my pocket calculator that handled it accurately too.
In AC electrical circuits (everything from power to analog audio and video at the time) one needs complex math to describe (and predict) what's going on in regards to voltage, current and power.
I noticed on a recent TV show about Westinghouse, Tesla and Edison, the biggest factor in Edison's dislike of AC power boiled down to his inability to do the math describing it. The global use of the Tesla 3 phase electrical power transmission is an enormous (and almost entirely unnoticed) tribute to Tesla.
(I used to be able to Thevenize too !!)
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