• 0 Posts
  • 2 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 18th, 2023

help-circle

  • delgato@lemmy.worldtomemes@lemmy.worldIt's true.
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    2 months ago

    The Italian Bombelli in 1572 seemed to toy with both concepts but called imaginary numbers “quantità silvestri” (silvestri meaning ‘wild’) and complex numbers “numeri complessi”. Interesting the imaginary is a quantity and the complex is a number, but maybe old Italian didn’t have that distinction.

    I suppose Descartes would agree with you, he first coined the term “imaginary” because he didn’t think they’d serve much purpose. Euler made use of them and continued using the term. Complex number is a complex - a number with a real and an imaginary component.