Re: i think this is interesting

On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 18:29:16 UTC, "Jo Ling" <donald.duck@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

: Simon Singh's book on Fermat's Last Theorem states that "i" was invented out
: of necessity,
: because mathematicians needed to define the square root of -1.
:
: It set me thinking ... what's the square root of i?

I recently heard that question asked of a rather bright ten (sic) year
old boy who had just started thinking about complex numbers. After
about ten seconds' thought he said "I don't know what you'd call it,
but it's about here (points, correctly) on the complex plane."

Ian
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: i think this is interesting
    ... > Simon Singh's book on Fermat's Last Theorem states that "i" was invented out ... > of necessity, ... > because mathematicians needed to define the square root of -1. ...
    (uk.education.maths)
  • Re: i think this is interesting
    ... >Simon Singh's book on Fermat's Last Theorem states that "i" was invented out ... >of necessity, ... >because mathematicians needed to define the square root of -1. ... Check by multiplying this by itself to get "i". ...
    (uk.education.maths)
  • i think this is interesting
    ... Simon Singh's book on Fermat's Last Theorem states that "i" was invented out ... of necessity, ... because mathematicians needed to define the square root of -1. ...
    (uk.education.maths)
  • Re: how can I return nothing?
    ... In real number domain a square root of ... it in a N-dimensional case too, no matter what coordinate system you use. ... real number element which is sufficient to displace it off the zero line ... Most numbers in the complex plane are either to ...
    (comp.lang.c)
  • Re: Negative index
    ... in article ceee3b79.0407301250.45701930@posting.google.com, Hanyou Chu at ... The correct statement is that the dielectric ... > complex plane. ... The refractive index is the square root of the dielectric ...
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