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Timeline for Do complex numbers really exist?

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Apr 15, 2011 at 20:45 history made wiki Post Made Community Wiki
Jul 20, 2010 at 23:08 comment added Jonathan Fischoff You can use normal geometry, you just have to add the idea of front and back, or alternatively clockwise and counter-clockwise. One way to prime the pump of understanding, is think how rotating something by 90 degrees twice gives -1. So rotate^2 = -1. i is like a 90 degree rotation.
Jul 20, 2010 at 22:54 comment added Neil Mayhew When I've used this explanation with people, they want to know why you can't just use normal geometry, which doesn't involve the concept of a negative square root.
Jul 20, 2010 at 22:52 history edited Jonathan Fischoff CC BY-SA 2.5
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Jul 20, 2010 at 22:40 history answered Jonathan Fischoff CC BY-SA 2.5