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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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As it's now Sunday, I'm going back in time. The destination is late 2021, and it's a response to a 30 Day Blogging Challenge prompt: "Epiphany" 
I have, before I save this one, 2380 entries in this blog (the max is 3000, so you're stuck with me for a while yet). While I try not to reuse titles, sometimes it happens, especially when I can't be arsed to search for a title before I use it.
"Epiphany" was one of them. According to my search, which I did this time, I have three entries with that title (one of them includes a question mark). This annoys me, but I doubt anyone else cares.
The prompt in question, in this version of Epiphany, was to "write about a moment in your life that changed the way you view the world."
I've had a few moments like that, and it seems I wrote about most of them. The one in particular noted in the linked entry was that whether something is created or destroyed depends on your point of view about it.
That insight was an example of itself. My old worldview was destroyed, a new one created. Which one's superior? Obviously, I think the later one is. Others might have a different perspective.
Nothing since that epiphany (or since the entry where I wrote about it) has changed my mind about its truth, but, admittedly, it's not something that much affects my life. I continue to consider things like erecting a building to be "creation," while things like bombing that building to be "destruction." Likely, most people do that; it's a rare situation when you have to think about it to decide whether something is created or destroyed.
The word itself apparently comes from Greek and Latin, with the original meaning of "reveal." It's now inextricably tied to religion, as Epiphany is a celebration associated with Christmas. (It's either about the coming of the Magi, or the baptism of Jesus, depending on whose church you're talking about.) There's a lesser-known definition that's more broadly religious, meaning some sort of manifestation of the divine, not limited to Christianity.
As I'm not religious, though, that's almost never the connotation I mean when I use the word; it's the more secular meaning of a sudden insight, which anyone can have, whether they're religious or not.
As I noted in that 2021 entry, nothing is actually created or destroyed, only transformed. As others have noted, the only certainty in the universe is transformation.
Well. That, and death and taxes. |
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