Imaginary Numbers in Math

[ThePatriot]

Would someone please tell my lost friend Jonno here that imaginary numbers can appear in problems. He refuses to believe i is an actual mathematical thing. He says it is a variable...someoen tell him it has a meaning and can be used in a problem.

[synreal]

yup, they exist

http://www.math.toronto.edu/mathnet/answers/imaginary.html

[J]

If I remember correctly, i, the imaginary number is the square root of negative one. Like many things in algebra it is used for something very complicated and useless.

[Jonno06]

i=squareroot of -1.....so therfor its not imaginary in the first place....!

[Jonno06]

This isn't the case. Imaginary numbers do exist. Despite their name, they are not really imaginary at all. (The name dates back to when they were first introduced, before their existence was really understood. At that point in time, people were imagining what it would be like to have a number system that contained square roots of negative numbers, hence the name "imaginary". Eventually it was realized that such a number system does in fact exist, but by then the name had stuck.)

[ThePatriot]

Someone please tell Jonno he is quite mistaken, he is saying its not imaginary, he doesnt seem to understand the dif between a variable and a constant....he thinks i is a constant that is not imaginary. It is imaginary becuase there is no answer for the square root of negative 1, so he says, if it was imaginary it cannot be used in problems. This is coming from someone who is in regular geometry speaking to someone going into Calculus AB...ignorant people...

He was taking it literally...he says that imaginary numbers dont exist, now he says the entire mathematical community as a whole has been mis naming it for as long as its been around. Mid 1700's i believe, could be wrong. Would someone just tell him, please, he refuses to believe me.

[Jonno06]

However, there is a different number system in which such a thing does exist: the Complex Number System. The "numbers" in this different number system will be totally different objects from the familiar real numbers (they will in fact be pairs of real numbers), but that doesn't make them any less real
(0,1)=i
(0,1)(0,1) = ( (0)(0) - (1)(1), (0)(1)+(1)(0) ) = (-1,0)

[synreal]

i is a constant, i is always equal to the square root of -1

it is not imaginary in the sense of not existing, it is "complex", simply meaning we have no easy way of phsyically showing its value

[Jonno06]

i am actually terribly bad at math(failed freshman year)......

i am more of a science type of person actually....

but it sure is fun to debate such a confusing mathematical debate

[ThePatriot]

Yea, in the literal sense it exists, but if you try and determine a value for the square root of negative 1....good luck. Jonno, why dont you tell your math teacher you dont believe that i is imaginary...

[Shaft]

BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HAHA HA HA HA HAHA HA
AAAAHHHH HAH HAH HAH

Imaginary numbers is my CAREER!!!! As an electrical engineer, currently doing RF (radio) stuff those i's are all I think about. Actually I use j but it's the same thing.

THEY EXIST!!! THEY ARE IMPORTANT!!! THEY ARE GOOD!!!!

Yup yup yup... square root of negative one is what makes it so.

Now you all work with them graphs in algebra right with x and y? I chart stuff in x and i. But I use funky Smith charts of insanity. WA HA HA HA HAHA Wheeeeeeeew

Have a nice day.
Ar

[Jonno06]

how can J be the same thing as I if I is a constant????

[synreal]

the exact same way that i can be james and synreal, call it whatever you want, it has a defined value

[J]

Why the hell do we need imaginary numbers!?!

[Jonno06]

we dont......

can someone give me a problem with i in it please....