Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!xlned.com!feeder1.xlned.com!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed1.news.xs4all.nl!xs4all!newsgate.cistron.nl!newsgate.news.xs4all.nl!post.news.xs4all.nl!not-for-mail Return-Path: X-Original-To: python-list@python.org Delivered-To: python-list@mail.python.org X-Spam-Status: OK 0.029 X-Spam-Evidence: '*H*': 0.96; '*S*': 0.01; 'root': 0.05; 'subject:Python': 0.06; 'earliest': 0.09; 'received:80.91': 0.09; 'received:80.91.229': 0.09; 'received:gmane.org': 0.09; 'received:list': 0.09; 'terms,': 0.09; 'cc:addr:python-list': 0.11; 'python': 0.11; 'numbers;': 0.16; 'received:80.91.229.3': 0.16; 'received:plane.gmane.org': 0.16; 'roy': 0.16; 'subject: \n ': 0.16; 'wrote:': 0.18; 'cc:addr:python.org': 0.22; 'header:User- Agent:1': 0.23; 'please?': 0.24; 'cc:2**0': 0.24; 'cc:no real name:2**0': 0.24; "i've": 0.25; 'header:X-Complaints-To:1': 0.27; 'header:In-Reply-To:1': 0.27; 'chris': 0.29; 'am,': 0.29; 'this.': 0.32; 'fri,': 0.33; 'maybe': 0.34; 'subject: (': 0.35; 'agree': 0.35; 'to:addr:python-list': 0.38; 'skip:- 10': 0.38; 'to:addr:python.org': 0.39; 'received:org': 0.40; 'called': 0.40; 'even': 0.60; 'numbers': 0.61; 'smith': 0.68; 'received:109': 0.72; 'electrical': 0.74; 'square': 0.74; 'discovered': 0.83; '(probably': 0.84; 'conflicts': 0.84; 'sfxlen:4': 0.84; 'pfxlen:big': 0.91; 'from.': 0.93; 'taught': 0.96; '2013': 0.98 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: python-list@python.org From: Robin Becker Subject: Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 14:29:37 +0100 References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: python-list@python.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 109.174.168.73 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130801 Thunderbird/17.0.8 In-Reply-To: X-BeenThere: python-list@python.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.15 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion list for the Python programming language List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Message-ID: Lines: 18 NNTP-Posting-Host: 2001:888:2000:d::a6 X-Trace: 1381411785 news.xs4all.nl 15959 [2001:888:2000:d::a6]:52981 X-Complaints-To: abuse@xs4all.nl Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:56567 On 10/10/2013 14:25, Chris Angelico wrote: > On Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 12:09 AM, Roy Smith wrote: >> BTW, one of the earliest things that turned me on to Python was when I >> discovered that it uses j as the imaginary unit, not i. All >> right-thinking people will agree with me on this. > > I've never been well-up on complex numbers; can you elaborate on this, > please? All I know is that I was taught that the square root of -1 is > called i, and that hypercomplex numbers include i, j, k, and maybe > even other terms, and I never understood where j comes from. Why is > Python better for using j? > > ChrisA > Electrical Engineers use j (probably to avoid conflicts with i (current). --electrically yrs-- Robin Becker