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Tuesday, Apr. 8, 2025

6:38pm EDT

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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:

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

Mar 12, 2025 at 8:16pm
In response to "Penultimatum"

As my Grandmother used to say, "Everything changes except that which stays the same." I never did understand why she said it, but it sounds good.

1 Like

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

Mar 12, 2025 at 8:13pm
In response to "Numbers End"

Looking forward to the new book and hoping you don't encounter a meteor.

1 Like

Lazy Writer est 4/24/2008

Mar 12, 2025 at 4:19pm
In response to "Numbers End"

Sorry this one is closing..I will look for the new one tomorrow! Looking forward to it.

2 Like

Aiva Raine

Mar 12, 2025 at 3:45pm
In response to "Numbers End"

Thanks for a great 3000 entries.

Looking forward to the new blog, whatever it might be.

2 Like

Wordsmitty ✍️

Mar 12, 2025 at 1:36pm
In response to "Numbers End"

OK. What have you done with the real Robert Waltz?

Also, for the scientist engineer in me, have you actually tried to make entry 3001 and been rejected. Until there's proof, it's not real.

Thank you for your indulgence and sharing of wisdom.

R.I.P. "Complex Numbers"

3 Like

Anni Pon

Mar 12, 2025 at 11:20am
In response to "Numbers End"

Sorry that this one is coming to an end, but I'm excited to see what you have in store for the new one!

2 Like

Wordsmitty ✍️

Mar 11, 2025 at 1:42pm
In response to "Penultimatum"

It's been an enlightening run. We wish you well in your next adventure.

It will be interesting to see if after the next entry that WDC actually does stop you from adding another.

We're all waiting on pens and pencils for the unveiling of the new blog and to discover what it will be called.

1 Like

BIG BAD WOLF is Merry

Mar 11, 2025 at 10:46am
In response to "Penultimatum"

I'm reminded of this scene from The Princess Bride.

(Vizzini has just cut the rope The Dread Pirate Roberts is climbing up)
Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

3 Like

Soldier_Mike

Mar 10, 2025 at 11:46pm
In response to "Revisited: "In Spite Of""

Tangentially related to 6. Adidas and Puma: During my first tour in Germany, I was assigned to the Army agency that formerly occupied Herzo Base, an airfield probably located within medium mortar range from the sport shoe factories.

As far as German revenge is concerned, I would venture a guess that it's planned down to the smallest detail and executed with appropriate gusto.

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

Mar 10, 2025 at 6:31pm
In response to "Automatic for the People"

Earlier today I did a bit of shopping. I found a couple of items I had not planned on purchasing on sale so I grabbed them. As the cashier rang them up, I noticed they did not register the sale price, the regular price, but an even higher price. I questioned it and was told this, "The sale ended yesterday, but we didn't get the sign changed. Today the price increased because our cost has now increased." Yes, how did you guess, one of the items was eggs, now over a dollar each!

1 Like

May 11, 2021 at 12:01am

#1009998

Cool Fusion

PROMPT May 11th

What was cool when you were young but isn’t cool now? Is there anything that has become cool in recent years that wasn’t cool in your youth?

What was cool when you were young but isn’t cool now?

Mammoth hunts.

Come on, you knew I was going to make that joke.

I gotta say, though, I don't know what's cool and I never did. The entire idea of fashion and popularity eludes me. I suppose the word "cool" itself might qualify. I'm pretty sure that this meaning of the word came about as part of whatever counterculture was prominent at the time, and it's been switching from cool to cold and back again ever since.

One of the idiosyncrasies of English is how some words can mean their exact opposite also, as with "cleave." Such contronyms must be nothing but confusing for those poor sods who have to learn our language. Another is that words for opposite concepts can come to mean similar things, as with "cool" and "hot." And meanings can change over time; I'm told that the original meaning of "nice" was closer to how we use the word in sarcasm today.

I do remember that one thing we did a lot of back when "groovy" was a thing was for kids to ride in the back of pickup trucks, or in cars without seatbelts. Do that now, and you get your kids taken away.

Honestly, I'm not sure how any of us managed to survive.

Some changes have been for the worse, sure, but I don't ever want to be one of those old guys who bemoans the loss of some bullshit "good old days." We have a lot more respect for nerds today than there once was, for instance. Learning science and math has become cool. There's tobacco, which has gone from cool to not-cool, and cannabis, which has gone from not-cool to cool. At least in mainstream culture; in La Résistance, it's always been cool.

The only certainty in life is change, and it's best to try to stay cool about it. And yet some things endure; sunglasses, for example, have always been, are, and always will be, the Platonic ideal of cool.

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