Re: Imaginary reality

[Ludwik Kowalski <KowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>]

TIMOTHY WAGNER wrote:

> As a retired teacher I cannot remember how the complex wave equation
> y=Aexp(i[kx-wt]) was first encountered in my own education. Recently I
> began to wonder how this would be introduced, anyway. Accepting the
> necessity of its use in QM, I wanted to ask how teachers today related
> this complex expression to mind's-eye reality early in the educational
> process, or whether they would simply show the concept as a math tool
> to have practical applications later.

Negative distances (or velocities) also belong to "imaginary reality". We are
used to them and nobody is puzzled. I do remember times when complex
numbers presented a conceptual difficulty for me. Then I learned that they
are convenient "shortcuts".