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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: Tenebrous Jekyll

about 7 hours ago
In response to "Phases"

Perhaps, if the full moon drives one to madness, the half moon will only make one half-crazy.

1 Like

Battywyn🎶

Oct 29, 2024 at 12:18pm
In response to "The Numbers Don't Lie"

I hear ya. I like to think I'm discerning enough to detect fakes, but that might just be my ego talking. When it comes to local businesses, I also go to social media and request recommendations. With both reviews from strangers and recommendations from friends, I give more credence when more (anecdotal, heh) details are provided. It's more an art than science, but liars either have such flawless details that their story sounds fabricated, or they get embarrassed when they trip themselves up. Truthtellers make errors, because memories are fallible, but they get more confused than embarrassed. Ultimately, the only way to really know is to try the product/service yourself. Which is why you'll hear about my Cancun vacation next month, but you don't have to believe me.

1 Like

Robert Waltz

Oct 29, 2024 at 11:07am
In response to "The Numbers Don't Lie"

Battywyn🎶

- I, too, look at the 1-star reviews, though again, reviews aren't my sole criteria. But sometimes it's blatant fake reviewing from the competition: "Don't stay here! It has rats, bedbugs, and roaches! Stay at this other place instead!" where "this other place" is clearly owned by the reviewer.

On the other paw, five-star reviews are often salted by the establishment in question.

Used to be, you could look at the four- and two- star reviews to get more honest, nuanced opinions, but the establishments, and their competition, have figured out that trick.

Which is one reason why reviews aren't my sole criteria.

(None of this applies to WDC reviews, or to the artificially inflated Uber rating system)

Battywyn🎶

Oct 29, 2024 at 11:00am
In response to "The Numbers Don't Lie"

And I was going to conclude by saying, when evaluating Caribbean vacation destinations, even if 5,000 people gave it a 4.8 rating, if the one star reviews were from seven people who encountered rats in their rooms, I'm very likely to not choose this destination.

2 Like

Battywyn🎶

Oct 29, 2024 at 10:58am
In response to "The Numbers Don't Lie"

Well, that was annoying. I was still in the process of editing, so please excuse the multitude of errors. I also intended to italicize the quotes from your post. Stupid f****** Parkinson's.

1 Like

Battywyn🎶

Oct 29, 2024 at 10:56am
In response to "The Numbers Don't Lie"

You know what sometimes lies? Anecdotes.

Also, dogs, I've heard.

Oh, hell no.

🤣 I love a good inside joke, but my marketing guru would tell you to cross link here

The fallacy is named after Robert McNamara, the U.S. Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War, where his over-reliance on measurable data led to several misguided strategies

Bet he's proud of his claim to fame.

What's the point in data, then?

The point in data is a decimal separator, unless here in non-english speaking countries, in which case it's more likely a thousands separator.

So, whenever I'm evaluating online reviews for pretty much anything, and for the record I check them for almost everything - I always consider three things: 1. The average rating (eg, number of stars); 2. The The number of contributors to the rating; and three. What the one star ratings say.

1 Like

Annette

Oct 28, 2024 at 2:47pm
In response to "Waste Not"

In Southern California, every single family residence has a green bin. Every trash day, three different trucks make the rounds.

1 for composting
1 for recycling
1 for garbage

Trader Joe's sells almost exclusively packaged foods, even perishables. They have contracts with college food pantries. In many colleges, there are now pantries that are open to the students 4 or 5 days a week plus 1 day when people from the community can drive up and receive a bag with a mix of fresh fruits and vegetables along with non-perishable foods and donated sundries.

Churches are huge food redistribution centers also.

The "too hard to set up" systems have created good jobs here. Instead of seeing food donations as a liability, they have created a supervised and refrigerated second market.

The cost for employees is small because, of course, many of the positions are volunteers. But the supervisors and some of the staff are full time employees with benefits.

The article has thrown up obstacles that are easy to overcome.

3 Like

AnotherDreamer

Oct 28, 2024 at 11:33am
In response to "Waste Not"

https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6156cebc4c605e281289a232/6156cebc4c605eb8bc89... e%20for%20beginners%2024%2009%2018.pdf

1 Like

Robert Waltz

Oct 28, 2024 at 11:33am
In response to "Waste Not"

AnotherDreamer

- Hey, it's a replicator from Star Trek!

Now let's invent the holodeck.

2 Like

AnotherDreamer

Oct 28, 2024 at 11:27am
In response to "Waste Not"

We the people of the world could use those products before they are compost as free sources for 3D printed foods that could be used for emergency food, or if tasty enough, re sold.https://builtin.com/articles/3d-printed-food

2 Like

December 28, 2019 at 12:16am

#972128

Open and Shut

Nothing intellectually challenging today. Just an interesting bit of trend reporting.

https://www3.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/03/06/miss-walls-cry-for-help-from-woman...

People in open-concept homes are realizing the walls were there for a reason

When Star Trek premiered on TV back in the 60s, camera equipment was bulky as hell. Ever wondered why the corridors were about five times as wide as they needed to be? It was so they could track with the cameras. It doesn't make sense that there would be wasted space on a starship, but that show, more than any other, has informed our ideas of what a spaceship should look like. Contrast that with the 1960s reality of space capsules smaller than the cars of the period.

I mention this because I'm pretty well convinced that open-concept housing became so popular because it's easier to display on TV.

“In our old house,” said Didonna, a financial analyst, “I’d come home and make dinner and my husband would be watching TV in the other room, and a good portion of the evening we’d be apart.”

She got her togetherness, all right, in a glorious new house in Millbury. Now when she cooks and her husband watches TV, he’s in full view. Relaxing. While she works. “Frankly it’s annoying,” she said. A real estate agent has been called.

“I miss walls,” she said.

You probably also miss actually communicating with your spouse. Real estate agent? You lot need to call a marriage counselor. I say this with great hypocrisy; I've been known to sit back and smoke a cigar on the front stoop while watching my wife mow the lawn (in my defense, I had a bad back). Now I don't have a wife. I don't fail to see the connection.

I think our ideas of how we're supposed to live pretty much come from popular culture. And like I said above, some of these things just track better on TV. It's easier to film a scene where one person is cooking and the other is sitting on the couch if you can do it in one shot. It's also cheaper to do set design with fewer props, and so the "uncluttered" look became the ideal.

Is it "life imitates art" or "art imitates life?" I can never remember which was the original platitude and which was the parody.

Honestly, I vacillate, myself. I've lived in the same house for something like 25 years now - much longer than I lived in my childhood home - and not only do I like the house, but I like the neighborhood and I like the city. Every time I think of living somewhere else, I think of all the things I have here and go, "...nah." And yet I yearn for the unfamiliar at times, which is why I travel, and it's also why sometimes I think about what it might be like to live elsewhere.

If I did, though, would I want an open-concept design, or a partitioned one? I don't have kids, so family time isn't a consideration. I do have friends, and I've been known to host parties at my place, and open-concept would work for that. I'm also quite a lousy housekeeper; I like my stuff (I say again, fuck you, Marie Kondo), and I have a lot of stuff. I'll never conform to the Spartan ideal of minimalist living. So having extra rooms just to keep all the stuff in would be nice.

One thing I'd never do, though, that I find extraordinarily amusing: the "show kitchen." It reminds me of the WASP habit of carefully furnishing a living room, say, and then never letting anyone so much as set foot in it for fear its museum-quality pristine shine would be tarnished by an errant footstep denting the carpet. I remember visiting such people when I was younger, and they were always quick to show me the precisely arranged "living" room whilst barring entry to its sacred space. Seemed to me like a waste of money and room. So it is with the show kitchen.

But hey, whatever works for you. I do reserve the right to snark about it.

2 Like • Comment • View 3 comments

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