Complex Numbers (Book)

Blog Calendar

◄ February ► 2020
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
Archive				RSS

About This Author

Contact Me

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.

http://www.ddewey.net/mandelbrot/

Signature for Honorable Mentions in 2018 Quill Awards

A signature for exclusive use of winners at the 2019 Quill Awards

Signature for those who have won a Quill Award at the 2020 Quill Awards

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Write_Mikey_Write!

about 20 hours ago
In response to "Global Domination"

A little girl wearing a Hello Kitty shirt in Middle-of-Nowhere, Siberia will certainly make you wonder how it got there. My grandson has a souvenir t-shirt with a Terex 33-19 "Titan" on it. When it was built in 1973, the Titan was the largest, highest payload capacity truck ever built, a title it held for 25 years. The thing is, the truck on that t-shirt is on display in Sparwood, BC, Canada - over 1000 miles from here, and his mom got the shirt at a local thrift store. Makes me wonder.

Oh, yeah - I thought 'Schrödinger's Hello Kitty' was funny, too.

1 Like

Adherennium Plotting something

about 22 hours ago
In response to "Global Domination"

For whatever warped reason, 'Schrödinger's Hello Kitty' has tickled my funny bone.

3 Like

Brandiwyn🎶

Nov 12, 2024 at 10:50am
In response to "Blond Man's Bluff"

That's interesting about the two spellings of blonde. I always thought blonde referred to the person and blond referred to the hair. But I never bothered to look it up, So you've catered to my lazy today.

3 Like

Kåre เลียม Enga

Nov 9, 2024 at 1:02pm
In response to "It Was a Dark and Starry Night"

Ah... but why did he see those swirls when many of us don't? A totally different discussion... out of thin air... which is a frozen fog today when I gaze out the window.

Humans have great skills of observation; some of us extraordinary skills. Is The Scream depictive or evocative? 😱

Turkey DrumStik

Nov 9, 2024 at 11:04am
In response to "It Was a Dark and Starry Night"

Frankly, I'm more surprised to see reasonably good reporting from CNN. I'd given up on their ability to rein in their tendency toward loaded speech.

2 Like

JayNaNoOhNo

Nov 8, 2024 at 12:00pm
In response to "Bungalow Bash"

For the love of God, what did I just read? That is by far the worst use case of a bungalow I've ever seen, and a fundamental misunderstanding of the value of front porches—and the size of bungalows.

Was this his point? Nope, I know what his point was. For a guy so worried about presentation, he certainly undercut his own arguement.

1 Like

Turkey DrumStik

Nov 8, 2024 at 9:47am
In response to "Bungalow Bash"

"People don't change their minds on the internet. They usually do that in books, battlefields, or not at all.

Yeah, that's a little bleak."

Bleak and also inaccurate.

1 Like

Kåre เลียม Enga

Nov 7, 2024 at 10:19pm
In response to "Past and Future Intents"

I must live in the present. In the past I daydreamed a lot... probably to escape the bruises of reality; however, I need to be more aware crossing streets or even how I get out of bed (no rapid movements without thinking of consequences).

I can envision a future more peaceful than the present because this time-and-place isn't the only "present" that's ever existed, and I do try to see the larger view (emphasis on 'try').

1 Like

Lilli 🧿 ☕

Nov 7, 2024 at 10:58am
In response to "Past and Future Intents"

If the aforementioned exercises don't help; there's still liquor.

3 Like

Turkey DrumStik

Nov 6, 2024 at 10:22am
In response to "Lo!"

Not gonna lie I need the holiday season chatter.

February 25, 2020 at 12:02am

#976273

Hack This

Worth reading if you want a decent takedown of "lifehacks." Or even if you don't. Especially if you don't.

https://medium.com/personal-growth/the-problem-with-hack-culture-b0ddf43784e9

The Problem with ‘Hack’ Culture
Most of it is complete, utter bullshit

I mean, really, it's right there in the subhead.

Venture down the self-help aisle of any bookstore and you’ll see it littered with titles about hacks, quick fixes, burning fat, and accessing mystical sounding theta brainwaves.

Lifehack: Don't browse the self-help aisle. Better yet, if you know there's something you want to improve, go to Amazon, find appropriate books and read the reviews. Yeah, yeah, I know, support your local bookstore and all that. But don't feed their "self-help" beast.

But the internet age has ushered in a whole new era: The maddening proliferation of hope — clouded in broscience.

"Broscience." I'm not sure I like that. But it's apt.

Use polyphasic sleep to hack your energy levels.

That one might work if, like me, you're naturally polyphasic, and can adjust your schedule accordingly. Then again, it might not.

The problem with all of these grand promises? The vast majority of them are bullshit. Complete, utter bullshit wrapped in complex sounding broscience.

Sturgeon's Law again. 90% of all published works are crap.

Now here's the part that addresses us as writers.

But the reality is that the onus shouldn’t be on the consumer of information; it should be on the writer, speaker, or influencer who has the power to make a difference. When you have a platform, you have a responsibility.

The downside of free speech is that everyone can exercise it. Wait, that's the upside. No, the actual downside is that it requires discerning consumers of said speech, which is difficult if you don't even know what to watch out for. I'll mention a few keywords to watch out for, apart from "hack:" cleanse, homeopathic, natural, ancient. I'm sure you can think of more.

For too long now, we’ve focused on the details, the finishing touches, the small things that may or may not work: Why am I concerned with whether or not I put cream or butter in my coffee but OK with binge drinking at the bar a few times a month?

Because I don't drink coffee but I do drink beer? Oh, wait, the author apparently thinks binge drinking is bad. Never mind.

In our diets, we go nuts over whether 80 percent of calories should be carbs or fat, all the while overlooking that a lot of what we eat — both carbs and fat — comes wrapped in plastic and bears little resemblance to anything found in nature.

I keep seeing that the true enemy is "processed" or "overprocessed" foods, but I haven't found a good definition for those, yet. I mean, technically, cooking is a process, and - raw-food-diet bullshit aside - cooking is what makes a lot of food more nutritious and digestible. Potatoes, for example. It's probably what allowed our ancestors to evolve these great big brains that most of us don't use.

We are seeking the silver bullet when the reality is we need to zoom out and nail the basics before we even consider the final 2 percent.

And there it is, folks, the buried lede.

It’s for these reasons that I wrote The Passion Paradox and Peak Performance. Am I a self-help guru? No way! But I do feel qualified to bring the focus back on the concepts that actually make a difference.

Look, dude, I'm not saying you're wrong, or that you're right. But I'm not clicking on those book links. Isn't the major part of the problem that too many people "feel qualified" to do this or that, without being actually qualified? Also, I hate reading this far along a halfway decent article only to find that it's a commercial in disguise. Bah.

So, I'm done here. I feel like he has good points, but those are somewhat muted by the fact that he's doing exactly what he's railing against.

Of course, I "feel qualified" to make these assessments.

1 Like • Comment • View 6 comments

© 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.