h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My maths lecturer says that i is no more imaginary than the square root of 2.
Imaginary is a bit of a misnomer, people tend to think that i isn't as, erm, good as any other number. You might want to point that out.
I love the article
Joanna (Princess of Darkness, wishing she was a mathematical princess too)

I actually said, "as opposed to the 'real' number system we were using before. This is still a point of slight contention between those who feel there is a much better name for such an important field and those who follow convention. As usual convention wins"

And convention does win, not that I want it to. There should be a better name.

They should still be known as imaginary, as thats what convention calls them, but you should draw attention to the fact that they actually exist, not just in some warped mathematician's imagination. That they exist as much as an irrational number, say.
I didn't mean change the entry title or what you call them in the article. I didn't make myself very clear

Yeah, I get what you mean. I will add another paragraph on it

ta

May help to show *where* they exist as well. Can't remember the exact details offhand, but in analogue electronic circuitry, the relationship between the rate of change of current in capacitors and inductors in a circuit can only be described using complex numbers.

Should be able to find the equations in any good tome on engineering mathematics. May even have one at home - I shall take a look sometime.