> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: "Lamonte Harris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: python-list@python.org > Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:11:14 -0500 > Subject: So what exactly is a complex number? > Like in math where you put letters that represent numbers for place > holders to try to find the answer type complex numbers?
Not quite. Consider the square root of -1. It's not real because you can't square a real number and get a negative, so we define "i" (or, perhaps "j") to be the square root of -1. An imaginary number is of the form Ai, where A is "real". So 2i, -3.14i are imaginary. Complex Numbers are of the form A + Bi Where A and B are real (so they have a "real" component and am "imaginary" component). So yo might see 2 + 3i, etc. You'll see them a lot in engineering.
-- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
