Search where?

This Portfolio (cathartes02)

All of Writing.Com

◄ October ► 2021
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	29	30
31
Archive				RSS

Offsite Blogs

· Waltz Travel Blog

Create New Item

Read & Review

Community

Browse By Type

Browse By Genre

Writing Resources

Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024

4:48am EST

Members: 669

Guests: 1,507

Total Online: 2,176

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:

Write_Mikey_Write!

a day ago
In response to "Global Domination"

A little girl wearing a Hello Kitty shirt in Middle-of-Nowhere, Siberia will certainly make you wonder how it got there. My grandson has a souvenir t-shirt with a Terex 33-19 "Titan" on it. When it was built in 1973, the Titan was the largest, highest payload capacity truck ever built, a title it held for 25 years. The thing is, the truck on that t-shirt is on display in Sparwood, BC, Canada - over 1000 miles from here, and his mom got the shirt at a local thrift store. Makes me wonder.

Oh, yeah - I thought 'Schrödinger's Hello Kitty' was funny, too.

1 Like

Adherennium Plotting something

a day ago
In response to "Global Domination"

For whatever warped reason, 'Schrödinger's Hello Kitty' has tickled my funny bone.

3 Like

Brandiwyn🎶

Nov 12, 2024 at 10:50am
In response to "Blond Man's Bluff"

That's interesting about the two spellings of blonde. I always thought blonde referred to the person and blond referred to the hair. But I never bothered to look it up, So you've catered to my lazy today.

3 Like

Kåre เลียม Enga

Nov 9, 2024 at 1:02pm
In response to "It Was a Dark and Starry Night"

Ah... but why did he see those swirls when many of us don't? A totally different discussion... out of thin air... which is a frozen fog today when I gaze out the window.

Humans have great skills of observation; some of us extraordinary skills. Is The Scream depictive or evocative? 😱

Turkey DrumStik

Nov 9, 2024 at 11:04am
In response to "It Was a Dark and Starry Night"

Frankly, I'm more surprised to see reasonably good reporting from CNN. I'd given up on their ability to rein in their tendency toward loaded speech.

2 Like

JayNaNoOhNo

Nov 8, 2024 at 12:00pm
In response to "Bungalow Bash"

For the love of God, what did I just read? That is by far the worst use case of a bungalow I've ever seen, and a fundamental misunderstanding of the value of front porches—and the size of bungalows.

Was this his point? Nope, I know what his point was. For a guy so worried about presentation, he certainly undercut his own arguement.

1 Like

Turkey DrumStik

Nov 8, 2024 at 9:47am
In response to "Bungalow Bash"

"People don't change their minds on the internet. They usually do that in books, battlefields, or not at all.

Yeah, that's a little bleak."

Bleak and also inaccurate.

1 Like

Kåre เลียม Enga

Nov 7, 2024 at 10:19pm
In response to "Past and Future Intents"

I must live in the present. In the past I daydreamed a lot... probably to escape the bruises of reality; however, I need to be more aware crossing streets or even how I get out of bed (no rapid movements without thinking of consequences).

I can envision a future more peaceful than the present because this time-and-place isn't the only "present" that's ever existed, and I do try to see the larger view (emphasis on 'try').

1 Like

Lilli 🧿 ☕

Nov 7, 2024 at 10:58am
In response to "Past and Future Intents"

If the aforementioned exercises don't help; there's still liquor.

3 Like

Turkey DrumStik

Nov 6, 2024 at 10:22am
In response to "Lo!"

Not gonna lie I need the holiday season chatter.

October 3, 2021 at 12:03am

#1018576

Irrational Primacy Effect

Usually, people cling to the first thing they hear about a subject, ignoring or dismissing any further evidence. This is called the Irrational Primacy Effect, and it's a form of confirmation bias.

Nobody Really Wanted To Drink The Kool-Aid: 4 Big Misreported Historical Moments

It's worst, I think, when the first thing you hear already speaks to your inherent biases (and we all have them). Then, when you get evidence to the contrary, your first reaction is often, "bullshit."

I'm not going to go through this item-by-item, but it's a Cracked link, so at least there's some humor sprinkled in, which (for me anyway) helps to soften the blow of being told what I thought I knew is wrong.

History is so complicated that it’s arguably a minor miracle the average person knows as much as they do. Sometimes dumbing down complex events is enough to help us get the point of how it’s shaped the modern world; you don’t need a PhD to understand that the Nazi were bad. But sometimes simplifying accidentally leaves everyone with the completely wrong impression...

All of the things at the above link are subject to misreporting and simplification, and I think it's important to get a fuller picture, including facts learned later on in the process. Science and knowledge are supposed to correct as well as refine old ways of looking at things, as the section about Galileo hints at.

And we see it all the time, even now. Perhaps the worst example, both in terms of outright falsehood and deleterious effect on society, is the reported link between childhood vaccines and autism. Leaving aside for the moment that believing this is basically saying, "I'd rather have a dead child than an autistic one," which is a big slap on the face to anyone on the spectrum, the entire report was completely fabricated in order to sell a book. Not only is there absolutely no link between vaccination and autism, but the person who perpetrated the hoax in the first place ended up losing his license. I won't name him, because I don't like giving oxygen to frauds, but you probably know who I'm talking about.

And yet, you still have people clinging to that complete falsehood. They might say, "why take chances?" Well, because the alternative is sick or dead kids, and more epidemics. They might say, "But my kid was fine until he got vaccinated, and then he became autistic." If true, that's coincidence, not causation.

There are, of course, likewise falsehoods being spread about other, more recently developed vaccinations. This is not a matter of people having different opinions; it's about some people simply clinging to the wrong set of facts.

None of us should feel bad if we fall victim to the irrational primacy effect, though; it can -- and does -- happen to everyone. But once you know about it, you have a mental check on it. Not that every bit of contradictory information suddenly changes the truth, so a healthy skepticism is still required.

So yeah, if you want humor, read the link. I'm entirely too frustrated with willfully ignorant idiots to even make jokes right now.

Mini-Contest Results!

Thanks for all the ideas for replacing the utterly despicable "revenge bedtime procrastination" label. Honestly, I thought all of them were better than the original. I'm going to award the one by Write_Mikey_Write!

for its appropriate acronym: TIMES UP. (See yesterday's entry's comments for what that is, and for the other good ideas.)

I'll do this again soon, so there will be more chances at a Merit Badge!

7 Like • Comment • View 1 comment

© Copyright 2024 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://writing.com/main/profile/blog/cathartes02/day/10-3-2021