Re: Help with confirmation on a small bit of assembly?

[Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net>]

In article <1170016754.503585.189240@j27g2000cwj.googlegroups.com>,
 aiiadict@gmail.com wrote:

> On Jan 28, 2:43 pm, "Jeff Blakeney" 
> <jeff.blake...@a2central.com.remove-xj-this> wrote:
> > Another math thing I always found bizarre was imaginary numbers.  Take
> > a line of real numbers:
> >
> > _______________________________________
> > -infinity          0          +infinity
> >
> > Imaginary numbers are above or below that line.  Lots of fun.  :-)
> 
> parallel to real numbers?
> 
> or, "above or below the numbers that the number line represents"
> 
> ?
> 
> Rich



Perhaps another way of describing it would help?

(Inspired by way too many weeks of dinking around on an Apple //e trying 
to write a good routine to plot the mandelbrot set...)

                          | +
                          | i
                        I | n
                        M | f
                        A | i
                        G | n
                        I | i
                        N | t
                        A | y
                        R |
                        Y |
       REAL               |
--------------------------+--------------------
-infinity                 |0          +infinity
                          |
                          |
                          | - 
                          | i
                          | n
                          | f
                          | i
                          | n
                          | i
                          | t
                          | y


Imaginary number: A real number * i, where the value of i is most 
commonly held to be equal to the square root of negative 2.

What's so imaginary about that?

Ever tried taking the square root of a negative number? Or squaring a 
number (ANY number, negative or positive) to get a negative result? 
Doesn't work too well, does it? :) 

(Which says to me that there's still a rather important detail about 
mathematics that we humans haven't managed to figure out yet... Damned 
if *I* know what that detail is, but it obviously exists - Another 
demonstration of the flaws in our math is trying to divide by zero...)

-- 
Don Bruder - dakidd@sonic.net - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
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