Thursday 13 September 2012

Year 12 further maths - Complex Numbers

The 'invention' of complex numbers isn't that old and people still find it hard to believe that they aren't just made up nonsense!

"A complex number is a number that can be put in the form a + bi, where a and b are real numbers and i is called the imaginary unit, where i2 = −1.[1] In this expression, a is called the real part and b the imaginary part of the complex number."

Have a look at the history of them ...http://rossroessler.tripod.com/
Especially the role of some mathematicians in 16th century Italy... http://env1.kangwon.ac.kr/cyberclass/undergrad/na/2008/website/numerical/ComplexNumberOrigin.html

...and have a look at some of the uses of them in our very real world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_number#Applications

No comments:

Post a Comment