On 11 October 2013 06:29, Oscar Benjamin <oscar.j.benja...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I learned to use i for sqrt(-1) while studying theoretical physics. > When I later found myself teaching maths to engineers I asked why j > was used and was given this explanation. I'm still unconvinced by it > though.
Please don't be. We need different symbols to distinguish between so many different aspects of current (average, dynamic, instantaneous, rms, peak, sinusoidal-amplitude, sinusoidal-phasor) that we use up all possible variations of bold, italic, subscript just to distinguish those different aspects of i. It gets confusing enough as it is, because typically we are describing many current variables (in one or more of the above aspects) simultaneously, not just one. And the same holds for current density, but less common. That's why we prefer j for sqrt(-1), not because we are unconvincing :) -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
