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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.
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What are these "feelings" and "emotions" of which you speak? They are illogical.
PROMPT May 22nd
Music often has the ability to remind us of old memories. In your entry today, be inspired by a specific piece of music or a musical instrument. What feelings/emotions does the music or instrument stir in you? Share a specific memory your chosen song or instrument reminds you of.
I strongly suggest that you skip to about 1:15 in the following video, to avoid a good bit of cringe. Yes, I know there's sorcery you can do with the URL to make a YouTube video start at a given time, but I can't be arsed to figure it out.
I'm choosing this one because I just found it today. Really, I could have picked any number of different tunes. This one, though... whenever I hear that opening fanfare, I smile. I can't help it. It's like when my cat does something unbearably cute, or when some asshole gets karmic justice that they deserve. (I'm a complicated individual.) It always makes me think of watching the episodes for the first, second, third, or whatever time, on the living room floor when I was a kid.
Star Trek, in its many incarnations, has been a part of my life for, well, all of it. At least the parts I can remember. It began the same year I did, but by the time I had any experiences that I really remember, it had already been cancelled. But, as it lived on in syndication, I grew upspent my childhood watching reruns.
Thus, I was just the right age to actually appreciate the Animated Series when it came out, and then old enough to cringe at the obvious pandering that was Wesley Crusher in The Next Generation. I was one of those idiot kids who actually wore a Command-track shirt (the yellow one) to the screening of The Motion Picture. I collected the books and comics. Okay, no, I never went to a convention; those people are weirdos.
I do have to admit I never finished watching Voyager. It just never worked for me. But the rest of Trek, even the movies that people bad-mouth? All of that.
The kicker is, I can't even identify what, specifically, it is about Star Trek that I like so much. I'm that way with a few things, songs, shows, movies or even video games. It's not that I couldn't communicate it if I figured it out; it's that I can't figure it out.
I guess I'll just have to keep watching until I do. |
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