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Monday, Feb. 24, 2025

3:38pm EST

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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

about 23 hours ago
In response to "Revisited: "Forgive Me, For I Have Zinned""

My oldest son, while in college, would buy it and mix it with Kool-Aid when he had friends over.

2 Like

Allan Charles 🐾

a day ago
In response to "Revisited: "Forgive Me, For I Have Zinned""

I find White Zinfandel to be disgusting. Defining it as the wine equivalent to American cheese is a great comparison.

At my job, we only sold a cheap house wine for white zin, and when people ordered it I had to try to restrain my facial muscles from giving stank face.

2 Like

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

a day ago
In response to "Apparatus"

And then we have "cocktail" which can, if one takes the time to look it up, waste a good hour or more of time and provide various meanings and origins, including shoving ginger up a horses arse!

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

Feb 21, 2025 at 3:02pm
In response to "Thwip"

Put it on ATVs so when they get stuck they can shoot out a web and winch themselves out.

2 Like

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

Feb 20, 2025 at 6:10pm
In response to "One Fine Thing"

Well, it was a fine idea.

Adhere - Definitely Writing

Feb 20, 2025 at 7:48am
In response to "One Fine Thing"

I immediately thought of "Imfamy, imfamy, they've all got it imfamy." But then my mind does that.

2 Like

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

Feb 19, 2025 at 3:59pm
In response to "Fail to Succeed"

In one way, it's good to have people with boneheaded ideas, it provides something to blog about.

1 Like

Adhere - Definitely Writing

Feb 19, 2025 at 1:36pm
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.

2 Like

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

Feb 18, 2025 at 6:10pm
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

Feb 17, 2025 at 11:23pm
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.

February 24, 2025 at 9:07am

#1084315

Mystery

First, an Exclaimer! ▼
EXCLAIMER
(explanation/disclaimer)

The theme for this round of Journalistic Intentions is "Banned Instagram hashtags! All of these will get posts shadow banned on Instagram." So there are a few things my readers should know:

#1- I do not have, have never had, will never have, an Instagram account.

#2- Consequently, I have no idea what a shadow ban is or what it entails, only that it has something to do with suppression of posts with the indicated tag.

#3- I do not acknowledge the pronunciation of the octothorpe (#) as "hashtag." That symbol is either "number" or "pound," and that's more than enough definitions for one character. Anytime I see the # with letters following, I pronounce it pound, which made #MeToo way more hilarious than it should have been.

However, I hold the belief that I can write about absolutely anything, regardless of prior knowledge. This contest round tests that conceit. All entries, including this one, were selected at random from the list of 16 prompts provided.

Journalistic Intentions (18+)
This is for the journal keeping types that come to PLAY! New round starts February 20!
#2213121 by Elisa, Stik of Clubs

#tiktokgirls

Today's title, which is pronounced "Pound TikTok Girls," might seem like it could push the boundaries of this item's Content Rating. What if I said that, in this case, they're asking TikTok Girls to volunteer at the pound? Or that, like it or not, "girl" can describe any female-presenting human or other animal, including adult specimens, as in "girlboss," "Golden Girls," or "cowgirls?" And my cats are good girls, even though they're seniors now. As in "old," not "about to graduate."

So yeah, I'm not advocating violence on anyone underage. Well, unless they steal something from me, but that's not the case here.

In any case, "pound" or otherwise, I'm not going to look this one up. I'm pretty sure doing so would put me on a List, and that's even though I could use a VPN, private browsing, adblock, scriptblock, etc. "They" will find a way to find me just for typing tiktokgirls into a search box.

And, as you might imagine, what I said in the Exclaimer! above about Instagram goes double for DikDok. This has less to do with its ties to the Chinese government (it's not like Instagram's owner is any better) and more to do with just how vapid and insipid (both really fun words) all the KitKots that escape into the wild are, and their insistence on promoting the use of vertical video. My primary connection to the internet is via a laptop, which has a screen in landscape mode. And even when I'm using my Android, I prefer to hold it in that orientation on the few occasions when I watch videos. We've spent several generations training ourselves that landscape mode is the correct orientation for moving pictures, and suddenly the newer generation thinks they have the right to change that? No. They do not.

"Oh, but that's just the style these days?" Yeah? So are Crocs; that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Which, just to be perfectly clear, doesn't mean I want the government to ban either one. No, I want something far more difficult than that: that people decide, all on their own, that things like Crocs and vertical video are stupid-looking and shouldn't exist.

Meanwhile, I'll continue to pretend that they don't.

Consequently, while I continue to assert that there's no such thing as useless knowledge (especially for a writer) and that deliberately maintaining one's ignorance is an affront to Nature and humanity, I'm going to have to maintain my ignorance on this particular tag. It goes into the nearly-empty box in my brain labeled "Things I Don't Really Want To Know." It's in good company in there with "how does it feel to go through a wood chipper" and "what's really in the sausage I just had for breakfast."

So, what the tag is about, and why it'll get a post banned from Instagram, will remain mysteries to me unless someone else wants to tell me. And that's fine; what's life without a little mystery?

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