Blog Calendar
About This Author
Come closer.
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.




Merit Badge in Quill Award
[Click For More Info]

Congratulations on winning Best Blog in the 2021 edition of  [Link To Item #quills] !
Merit Badge in Quill Award
[Click For More Info]

Congratulations on winning the 2019 Quill Award for Best Blog for  [Link To Item #1196512] . This award is proudly sponsored by the blogging consortium including  [Link To Item #30dbc] ,  [Link To Item #blogcity] ,  [Link To Item #bcof]  and  [Link To Item #1953629] . *^*Delight*^* For more information, see  [Link To Item #quills] . Merit Badge in Quill Award
[Click For More Info]

Congratulations on winning the 2020 Quill Award for Best Blog for  [Link To Item #1196512] .  *^*Smile*^*  This award is sponsored by the blogging consortium including  [Link To Item #30dbc] ,  [Link To Item #blogcity] ,  [Link To Item #bcof]  and  [Link To Item #1953629] .  For more information, see  [Link To Item #quills] .
Merit Badge in Quill Award 2
[Click For More Info]

    2022 Quill Award - Best Blog -  [Link To Item #1196512] . Congratulations!!!    Merit Badge in Quill Award 2
[Click For More Info]

Congratulations! 2022 Quill Award Winner - Best in Genre: Opinion *^*Trophyg*^*  [Link To Item #1196512] Merit Badge in Quill Award 2
[Click For More Info]

   Congratulations!! 2023 Quill Award Winner - Best in Genre - Opinion  *^*Trophyg*^*  [Link To Item #1196512]
Merit Badge in 30DBC Winner
[Click For More Info]

Congratulations on winning the Jan. 2019  [Link To Item #30dbc] !! Merit Badge in 30DBC Winner
[Click For More Info]

Congratulations on taking First Place in the May 2019 edition of the  [Link To Item #30DBC] ! Thanks for entertaining us all month long! Merit Badge in 30DBC Winner
[Click For More Info]

Congratulations on winning the September 2019 round of the  [Link To Item #30dbc] !!
Merit Badge in 30DBC Winner
[Click For More Info]

Congratulations on winning the September 2020 round of the  [Link To Item #30dbc] !! Fine job! Merit Badge in 30DBC Winner
[Click For More Info]

Congrats on winning 1st Place in the January 2021  [Link To Item #30dbc] !! Well done! Merit Badge in 30DBC Winner
[Click For More Info]

Congratulations on winning the May 2021  [Link To Item #30DBC] !! Well done! Merit Badge in 30DBC Winner
[Click For More Info]

Congrats on winning the November 2021  [Link To Item #30dbc] !! Great job!
Merit Badge in Blogging
[Click For More Info]

Congratulations on winning an honorable mention for Best Blog at the 2018 Quill Awards for  [Link To Item #1196512] . *^*Smile*^* This award was sponsored by the blogging consortium including  [Link To Item #30dbc] ,  [Link To Item #blogcity] ,  [Link To Item #bcof]  and  [Link To Item #1953629] . For more details, see  [Link To Item #quills] . Merit Badge in Blogging
[Click For More Info]

Congratulations on your Second Place win in the January 2020 Round of the  [Link To Item #30dbc] ! Blog On! *^*Quill*^* Merit Badge in Blogging
[Click For More Info]

Congratulations on your second place win in the May 2020 Official Round of the  [Link To Item #30dbc] ! Blog on! Merit Badge in Blogging
[Click For More Info]

Congratulations on your second place win in the July 2020  [Link To Item #30dbc] ! Merit Badge in Blogging
[Click For More Info]

Congratulations on your Second Place win in the Official November 2020 round of the  [Link To Item #30dbc] !
Merit Badge in Highly Recommended
[Click For More Info]

I highly recommend your blog. Merit Badge in Opinion
[Click For More Info]

For diving into the prompts for Journalistic Intentions- thanks for joining the fun! Merit Badge in High Five
[Click For More Info]

For your inventive entries in  [Link To Item #2213121] ! Thanks for the great read! Merit Badge in Enlightening
[Click For More Info]

For winning 3rd Place in  [Link To Item #2213121] . Congratulations!
Merit Badge in Quarks Bar
[Click For More Info]

    For your awesome Klingon Bloodwine recipe from [Link to Book Entry #1016079] that deserves to be on the topmost shelf at Quark's.
Signature for Honorable Mentions in 2018 Quill AwardsA signature for exclusive use of winners at the 2019 Quill AwardsSignature for those who have won a Quill Award at the 2020 Quill Awards
For quill 2021 winnersQuill Winner Signature 20222023 Quill Winner



November 5, 2024 at 10:17am
November 5, 2024 at 10:17am
#1079535
Ah, yes, November 5, and Election Day in the US. The UK will be celebrating an attempted terrorist attack, while over here, we're trying to avoid a terrorist attack.

The Random Number Gods have chosen to bless us with another Cracked link today.

5 Spots on Earth Where the Laws of Physics Fall Apart  Open in new Window.
There’s a gravity hole in the ocean


Okay, but, no, there are no spots on Earth where the laws of physics actually fall apart. Well, maybe, sometimes, at CERN, but they do it on purpose.

Still, these are rather interesting.

There are some places on the planet where things get weird. For instance, you ever heard of the Bermuda Triangle? Well, it turns out there’s nothing weird about that bit of the ocean at all — it sees a lot of traffic, but vessels that travel there are no more at risk than those anywhere else.

Like Bigfoot, that's not going to stop humans from making shit up about it.

5 Gravity Drops Near Sri Lanka

Once you learn that the force of gravity is slightly variable across the planet, it stands to reason that there are some spots where it's less and others where it's more. Finding out where it's less, though, that's what science does.

Gravity varies from place to place — and in some places, it varies a lot. In the ocean near Sri Lanka, gravity is so much weaker than in the rest of the world that the sea level is more than 300 feet lower than it would otherwise be.

Hey, I just came up with a fix for rising sea levels! Just increase the gravity of the Indian Ocean, and presto!

To know why gravity’s so low there, we’d have to burrow deep into the planet, and possibly cut it in two, which is inadvisable.

Awww.

Now, look, what that article's not telling you is that it's a minuscule effect. The variation from average, above or below, is about 0.5%. We'd never feel it. Sure, it has a profound effect on sea level, but look at what the comparatively really very tiny effect of the Moon's gravity does to that on a daily basis.

4 The Toasty Bit of Norway

In the Norwegian Sea, we have one disturbing bit called the Lofoten Vortex, where the water stores an unusual level of heat.


Lofoten Vortex can be the name of my Bjork cover band.

Yes, yes, I know Bjork is from Iceland, but come on, look at a globe. (A flat map inevitably distorts the distance between Iceland and Norway.)

3 On Top of Paraguay, Magnetism Disappears

I recently saw an argument for why the Earth's magnetic field isn't as important as we thought for maintaining our atmosphere. But this isn't about that.

Without looking at the map, if you had to guess one spot where the magnetic field gets weird, maybe you’d point your finger at one of the poles. But the planet’s rotational axis, which defines where we put the north and south poles, isn’t the same as its magnetic axis (which creates the magnetic field). As a result, we have this belt of radiation around the globe that dips down and comes close to us at this unlikely spot above Paraguay.

So, it doesn't "disappear." It just gets weaker there. How much weaker, I can't be arsed to look up. I can forgive a comedy site for hyperbolic headers, but they made it sound like, I don't know, compasses won't work in Paraguay or something.

2 The Tulsa Center of the Universe

You might not have known that the center of the universe is in Tulsa, but that’s what this spot is named, and Oklahoma wouldn’t lie to us.


Can't be the center of the universe; I don't live in Tulsa.

We’d go investigate ourselves, but that would mean having to spend time in Tulsa.

Good reason.

1 The Cave Where Energy Comes from Rock

I mean, technically, coal is rock. Uranium ore is rock.

But then you have Movile Cave in Romania. The interior is totally cut off from the outside world, and the creatures in there get no energy through photosynthesis, either directly or indirectly. Instead, the producers of this food web are bacteria that get their energy through chemosynthesis.

Here, though, they're talking about an entire cave ecosystem that doesn't rely, at its base, on solar energy input (apart from, you know, it not being frozen solid and all). Which is outside our normal experience, and definitely doesn't break the laws of physics any more than the other examples do, but is really interesting. Because now we know for sure that life can exist without photosynthesis.

Exist, yes, but imagine crawling out of that cave to go vote. Who are the candidates, now?


© Copyright 2024 Waltz Invictus (UN: cathartes02 at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Waltz Invictus has granted InkSpot.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.

... powered by: Writing.Com
Online Writing Portfolio * Creative Writing Online