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Complex Numbers
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.
January 23, 2020 at 11:10am January 23, 2020 at 11:10am
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PROMPT: January 23rd
Finish this story:
A girl, sitting alone on a rock at the edge of the woods, jumps when she hears…
A girl, sitting alone on a rock at the edge of the woods, jumps when she hears, not from the cracked, faded, tufted pavement in front of her, nor from the slope to her right that curves sharply up the mountain, nor from the long, straight expanse to her left that leads, were someone foolish enough to brave the journey, to overgrown fields, then to howling empty subdivisions, then to the infected city, then to it doesn't matter where because you're not getting past the ruins; the sound not beginning in the shadowed, leaf-strewn forest floor behind her and then continuing, crescendoing, impinging on her consciousness only slowly so that she would have time to become aware, time to run or at least to hide in a culvert or behind the weeds waving in the wind on the other side of the deserted road -- no, directly behind her, less than a meter maybe, certainly no more than that, the sudden unmistakable ca-crunch of a once-human footstep.
I've been learning about suspensive sentences lately, and thought I'd give one a try. This prompt seemed suited to it.
Team by team, reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped
Look at that low plane, fine, then
Uh oh, overflow, population, common group
But it'll do, save yourself, serve yourself
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed
Tell me with the Rapture and the reverent in the right, right
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light
Feeling pretty psyched
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine |
© Copyright 2024 Robert Waltz (UN: cathartes02 at Writing.Com). All rights reserved. Robert Waltz has granted InkSpot.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
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