What is the use/need of complex numbers in real life if they are imaginary?
In: 3753
They are just as “imaginary” as negative numbers are. You can’t have negative sheep. If you put three of them in a pen, it’s entirely preposterous to think that you could take five away from there.
Negative numbers just happen to be very useful for representing amounts which can fluctuate between two states. For example, credit and debit. If you deposit five gold pieces to a bank, your balance says “5” which represents the banker owing that much to you. If you go there and withdraw seven gold pieces, the balance says “-2” and represents you owing that much to the bank. At no point do any sort of “anti-gold pieces” actually appear.
Complex numbers are the same. They’re a very useful tool for representing things which don’t flip between two directions, but cycle through four of them. As a tool, it doesn’t really have day-to-day applications to a layperson, but they’re crucial for solving a wide variety of math problems which, for example, let your cellphone process signals.
Latest Answers