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RE: IMAGINARY NUMBERS




On Sun, 1 Feb 1998, Tim Sullivan x5830 wrote:

"Real" and
"Imaginary" are just historical terms and don't mean "physical" and
"unphysical". I suppose this is the price we pay for rejecting complex roots of
polynomials by saying "Well they are Imaginary!, that's why."

Tim Sullivan
sullivan@kenyon.edu


Donald Simanek responded:

Horrors, Tim! Do teachers really say such a thing? They should lose their
license to teach.

+ lots of other good stuff I agree with.

I reply:

Well I seem to recall being told this on occasion in high school physics and
calculus classes. On the other hand it may be that my understanding
was less than 100% at the time and they may have been saying all the right
things! I remember my teachers with great fondness and with much
appreciation for a great preparation for college, so would not support pulling
their licenses even if they did say those things.

It may be more accurate to say that "imaginary" gets a strong association with
"unphysical" by the early examples students see no matter how explained.

Tim Sullivan
sullivan@kenyon.edu