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Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again)

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Date Fri, 11 Oct 2013 20:35:48 +1100
Subject Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again)
From David <bouncingcats@gmail.com>
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On 11 October 2013 12:27, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> wrote:
> On Fri, 11 Oct 2013 00:25:27 +1100, Chris Angelico wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 12:09 AM, Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> 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?
>
> Being simple souls and not Real Mathematicians, electrical engineers get
> confused by the similarity between I (current) and i (square root of -1),
> so they used j instead.
[...]
> <wink>

No, electrical engineers need many symbols for current for the same reason
that eskimos need many words for snow :) [*]

[*] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo_words_for_snow

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Thread

Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-10-11 00:25 +1100
  Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-10-10 14:12 +0000
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-10-11 01:20 +1100
      Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-10-10 16:54 +0000
        Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Christian Gollwitzer <auriocus@gmx.de> - 2013-10-10 21:08 +0200
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) William Ray Wing <wrw@mac.com> - 2013-10-10 11:36 -0400
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2013-10-10 10:39 -0700
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2013-10-10 20:13 -0400
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-10-11 17:01 +1100
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Nobody <nobody@nowhere.com> - 2013-10-11 12:21 +0100
  Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2013-10-11 01:27 +0000
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> - 2013-10-11 20:35 +1100
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Oscar Benjamin <oscar.j.benjamin@gmail.com> - 2013-10-11 12:30 +0100
      Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Jussi Piitulainen <jpiitula@ling.helsinki.fi> - 2013-10-11 15:11 +0300
      Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2013-10-11 10:05 -0400
        Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2013-10-11 17:03 +0000
        Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Gene Heskett <gheskett@wdtv.com> - 2013-10-11 13:00 -0400
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) John Nagle <nagle@animats.com> - 2013-10-15 22:27 -0700
      Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2013-10-16 08:21 -0400
      Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2013-10-16 13:22 -0400

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