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Imaginary numbers are more real than infinity.
(self.showerthoughts)
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this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2024
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Why? What does it mean for something to be real?
I believe pure mathematics isn't concerned with its correspondence with reality.
I mean, complex numbers are important for quantum mechanics. In that sense, they are closer to reality as they are used to describe the underlying blocks of reality to our current best understanding
You don't even have to go into quantum mechanics. I vaguely recall using a real/imaginary plane with a rotating vector to do something about electricity in first year engineering?
Don't worry I'm not actually an electrical engineer.
But my point is that there are applications for imaginary numbers with very practical engineering applications. Foundational, even.
electrical impedance is often represented with a complex number
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_impedance