Search where?

This Portfolio (cathartes02)

All of Writing.Com

◄ February ►
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
Archive				RSS

Offsite Blogs

· Waltz Travel Blog

Create New Item

Read & Review

Community

Browse By Type

Browse By Genre

Writing Resources

Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025

2:24pm EST

Members: 917

Guests: 3,473

Total Online: 4,390

Complex Numbers

by Robert Waltz

Rated: 18+ · Book · Personal · #1196512

Not for the faint of art.

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:

Adherennium - Maybe Writing?

48 minutes ago
In response to "Fail to Succeed"

Having drunk soda on both sides of the Atlantic, I have to say that Mountain Dew with HFCS in America tastes a lot better than the 'same' drink made with sugar here in the UK. The experience is smoother and so is the taste.

1 Like

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

about 20 hours ago
In response to "Tater Tales"

Instant potatoes? Yes, I enjoy them, too. We also use them for thickening up soups and stews.

1 Like

Robert Waltz

a day ago
In response to "Linguistic"

Annette

- I appreciate the recommendations, but I canceled Netflix when the choice was to put up with ads for a lower price or pay a shitload of money. If it were free with ads, I'd manage like I did in the days of broadcast TV, but I flat-out refuse to both pay money and watch commercials, which is why I never had cable TV.

The price for the ad-free experience also went up to the point where it wasn't worth it with the amount I watched.

Annette

a day ago
In response to "Linguistic"

I refer to my three languages as three different brains. In France, I activate my French brain. Which made for some funny turns of phrase when I was speaking to my son in English with English words, but in French syntax.

Netflix has some really good multilingual TV series. I recommend

Monsieur Spade

Black Spot

Capitani

1 Like

Robert Waltz

Feb 17, 2025 at 12:00pm
In response to "Linguistic"

Kåre เลียม Enga

- yeah, I edited out the duplication, because it could be seen as a refutation of itself.

1 Like

Kåre เลียม Enga

Feb 17, 2025 at 11:32am
In response to "Linguistic"

I use translation tools all the time... and subtitles on youtube.

My French pronunciation is okay because I learned it as a child; my Spanish is okay because I practiced it. I slip into both with one key exception. French is easier when I'm depressed and Spanish can draw me out of depression.

Speaking multiple languages has also been linked to delayed onset of dementia symptoms.

Yes, I saw that you repeated that. It bears repeating.

Speaking multiple languages has also been linked to delayed onset of dementia symptoms. Or so I hope.

1 Like

Lazy Writer est 4/24/2008

Feb 16, 2025 at 3:18pm
In response to "Revisited: "Hush""

Well as someone who only hears out if one ear..I prefer to be able to hear completely any sound or noise or whatever. There are sounds you never would miss until you can't hear them anymore.

Anyway each to their own..I also prefer silence at times too.

Keep writing.

1 Like

Robert Waltz

Feb 15, 2025 at 2:57pm
In response to "Ignorance is the Opposite of Bliss"

Kåre เลียม Enga

- While competition is often touted as the driving force of progress or evolution, it's actually cooperation that's most important. Even opposing sportsball teams, while seeming to be in competition, have agreed on a set of rules, the enforcers of these rules (referees or umpires or whatever), and the penalties for breaking the rules.

The Space Race is another example. On the surface, it was a dick-measuring contest between US and USSR. Each country relied on internal cooperation, obviously, but they also cooperated with each other—if only through things like weapons treaties and promises not to go to war over it.

Competition is a factor, of course. But survival depends on cooperation.

1 Like

Kåre เลียม Enga

Feb 15, 2025 at 12:46pm
In response to "Ignorance is the Opposite of Bliss"

Denver Broncos beat the Cleveland Browns... just saying. No, I didn't know. I looked it up! And although I know a thing or two I rely on the experts behind google to find out for me.

Is this blog entry pertinent? As Our Dear Leader fires experts left and right (but mostly left, because he's always right), we're left with loyalists who may or may not be experts or have any knowledge of the field at all.

You delineate the weakness of competitiveness. One ring to rule them all negates the contribution of millions. In the case of reaching the Moon or Mars, the crew cannot be competitive and even the technicians have to be a competent expert in what may be a detail (like proper heat shielding for any shuttle). China, USA and India can compete on getting to Mars; but, it will be a cooperative crew of experts that gets there.

I loved reading my poetry to a group of writers who could pick it apart. I miss that. Since I am the boss, I don't have to change one comma and I can ignore their suggestions... but I'm better off doing that than submitting to an AI program that reduces everything to General American for an audience of 12 year old Vacation Bible School students (a.k.a. the education system of Southern Baptist Confederacy of Oklahoma).

2 Like

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

Feb 14, 2025 at 3:35pm
In response to "Steaming Ship"

Thanks for clearing that up. On a side note, if I have a 16 foot fishing boat and stick my kayak in it, is it now a ship?

Speaking of space "ships", I've often wondered why the termed the craft used to shuttle people/beings between the planet and ship, or even between ships, shuttle-crafts.

In sticking with terminology, if the larger vessel is a spaceship and carries smaller crafts, shouldn't it be a spaceboat?

1 Like

February 14, 2025 at 9:19am

#1083840

Steaming Ship

As regular readers know, sometimes, I like to delve deep and tackle the biggest, most important questions of existence.

What Does the Ship Designation ‘SS’ Mean?
The initialism was originally a bit of shipbuilder marketing.

Oh, well that explains it then. Have a great day!

...okay, fine, I'll go into details.

Often, when you see the name of a boat (or a ship, for that matter), the name of the vessel itself will be prefixed by a short set of letters.

One thing I'll always resent my father for is that, despite having been a sailor for over 30 years, he never bothered to explain to me the difference between a boat and a ship. Even now, after figuring out a lot about that distinction on my own, I'm still a little baffled. Even after reading the link at the link, which links to a link about the distinction, it's clearly not clear.

Some things are immutably carved into the granite of Fact, though: A ship can carry a boat while a boat cannot carry a ship; a submarine is always a boat; a boat that plies a river is always a boat, not a ship.

Also, apparently, even though they don't actually exist yet except in the most rudimentary form, interplanetary conveyances will be known as "ships."

There are so many different forms of these letters that you might think they’re little more than a random license-plate style code number.

Well, no, because that's one aspect of my education my dad didn't neglect.

...and in civilian vessels, the most frequently encountered of these prefixes is probably SS.

Maybe because it's easy to slip an O in the middle?

SS dates back to the mid-1800s, when the Age of Sail came to an end and faster coal-powered ships became the norm. The shipbuilders of the day wanted a means of setting their modern vessels apart from the wind-powered ones of the past, and labeling each one SS—meaning “steamship”—did the trick.

Not what I'd consider marketing, but okay.

As naval technologies continued to change, however, so too did people’s understanding of precisely what SS was intended to mean.

Because of course it did.

Not all vessels are civilian operated, of course. In the United States, all craft of the U.S. Navy are prefixed with the letters USS, standing for “United States Ship.”

As we all know, this convention will be carried into space on the USS Enterprise, only it won't be "United States Ship," but the more contrived "United Space [or Star] Ship," supposedly a reference to the United Federation of Planets.

So, there it is: the Big Question, answered. You're welcome.

Comment • View 1 comment

© Copyright 2025 Robert Waltz (UN: cathartes02 at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Robert Waltz has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.

Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/profile/blog/cathartes02/day/2-14-2025