Some books give the credit to Descartes who was ridiculing them.
In 50 A.D., Heron of Alexandria studied the volume of an impossible section of a pyramid. What made it impossible was when he had to take √(81-114). However, he deemed this impossible, and soon gave up.
Issac Newton agreed with Descartes, and Albert Girad even went as far as to call these, solutions impossible
Interesting!
]]>I believe that the proper reason for this name is that the second axis on the Argand diagram is the image of the first.
That would be a nice reason, but I believe "imaginary" was used to ridicule them, until they found the complex realm was a hidden truth behind many things.
]]>Thanks for the page.
]]>Another great page! Well done!
I wish I could turn the clock back and get the inventor of 'imaginary numbers' to call them something else. It has led to the unfortunate idea, held by some, that imaginary numbers have less validity than 'reals', because they are made up and don't really exist (whatever that means).
I believe that the proper reason for this name is that the second axis on the Argand diagram is the image of the first. Possibly you could add a note to this effect?
Bob
]]>What do you all think?
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