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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.
October 8, 2021 at 12:01am October 8, 2021 at 12:01am
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Okay, this makes three Cracked links in a row by my count. Whatever. Some people say they read this blog to learn stuff. Well - here's a lot of stuff to learn. Hell, I didn't know most of it.
I gotta take issue with the title, though. Knowledge isn't the same thing as smarts. If it were, the internet would be the smartest thing ever, and... well. No. It's not memorizing trivia that makes you smart; it's being able to draw conclusions from it.
Today, I wrote not one but two poems, so I'm about written out. So I'm mostly just going to leave the link here for your (and my future) reference. See, being smart, I know when to shut up and let other people do the taking.
Sometimes.
From the walkmans in Guardians of the Galaxy to Jim Henson's coffee-fueled pre-Muppets career, here are 60 fun facts and random trivia tidbits that will inevitably make you the smartest person in the room.
So that's where I read the thing about the Guardians walkmen. Walkmans. Whatever. From a previous entry.
Just a word of warning, though: I didn't verify any of these. Don't take any of them as The Truth without backing it up from somewhere.
Also, a comment on just one of them:
15. The longest, non-technical word in the English Language has 45 letters.
Beating Disney’s “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” by 11 letters, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, is a 45-letter word for “a pneumoconiosis caused by inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust,” according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
That's a technical word, dammit.
I'm about burned out, but if you decide to look at the list and have any comments, feel free to post. Not doing a mini-contest today (though I will do one soon), but I'm perfectly happy to respond to your comments later. Found an error? Dispute an interpretation (as with the technical word above)? Let's hear it. |
© 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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