imaginary number

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Imaginary unit. (Discuss) Proposed since January 2012.

(repeats the pattern from blue area)

i –3 = i

i –2 = –1

i –1 = –i

i 0 = 1

i 1 = i

i 2 = –1

i 3 = –i

i 4 = 1

i 5 = i

i 6 = –1

i n = i n mod 4 (see modulus)

An imaginary number is a number whose square is less than or equal to zero.^[1] For example, is an imaginary number and its square is −25. An imaginary number can be written as a real number multiplied by the imaginary unit i, which is defined by its property i² = −1 (In other words, )^[2]

An imaginary number bi can be added to a real number a to form a complex number of the form a + bi, where a and b are called, respectively, the real part and the imaginary part of the complex number. Imaginary numbers can therefore be thought of as complex numbers whose real part is zero. The name "imaginary number" was coined in the 17th century as a derogatory term, as such numbers were regarded by some as fictitious or useless, but today they have a variety of essential, concrete applications in science and engineering.

History

An illustration of the complex plane. The imaginary numbers are on the vertical coordinate axis.

Although Greek mathematician and engineer Heron of Alexandria is noted as the first to have conceived these numbers,^[3][4] Rafael Bombelli first set down the rules for multiplication of complex numbers in 1572. The concept had appeared in print earlier, for instance in work by Gerolamo Cardano. At the time, such numbers were poorly understood and regarded by some as fictitious or useless, much as zero and the negative numbers once were. Many other mathematicians were slow to adopt the use of imaginary numbers, including René Descartes, who wrote about them in his La Géométrie, where the term imaginary was used and meant to be derogatory.^[5] The use of imaginary numbers was not widely accepted until the work of Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) and Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855). The geometric significance of complex numbers as points in a plane was first described by Caspar Wessel (1745–1818).^[6]

In 1843 a mathematical physicist, William Rowan Hamilton, extended the idea of an axis of imaginary numbers in the plane to a three-dimensional space of quaternion imaginaries.

With the development of quotient rings of polynomial rings, the concept behind an imaginary number became more substantial, but then one also finds other imaginary numbers such as the j of tessarines which has a square of +1. This idea first surfaced with the articles by James Cockle beginning in 1848.^[7]

Geometric interpretation

90-degree rotations in the complex plane

Geometrically, imaginary numbers are found on the vertical axis of the complex number plane, allowing them to be presented perpendicular to the real axis. One way of viewing imaginary numbers is to consider a standard number line, positively increasing in magnitude to the right, and negatively increasing in magnitude to the left. At 0 on this -axis, a -axis can be drawn with "positive" direction going up; "positive" imaginary numbers then increase in magnitude upwards, and "negative" imaginary numbers increase in magnitude downwards. This vertical axis is often called the "imaginary axis" and is denoted , , or simply .

In this representation, multiplication by –1 corresponds to a rotation of 180 degrees about the origin. Multiplication by corresponds to a 90-degree rotation in the "positive" direction (i.e., counterclockwise), and the equation is interpreted as saying that if we apply two 90-degree rotations about the origin, the net result is a single 180-degree rotation. Note that a 90-degree rotation in the "negative" direction (i.e. clockwise) also satisfies this interpretation. This reflects the fact that also solves the equation  — see imaginary unit. In general, multiplying by a complex number is the same as rotating around the origin by the complex number's argument, followed by a scaling by its magnitude.

Applications of imaginary numbers

Imaginary numbers are useful because they allow the construction of non-real complex numbers, which have essential concrete applications in a variety of scientific and related areas such as signal processing, control theory, electromagnetism, fluid dynamics, quantum mechanics, cartography, and vibration analysis.

Multiplication of square roots

Care must be used in multiplying square roots of negative numbers. For example,^[8] the following reasoning is incorrect:

The fallacy is that the rule , where the principal value of the square root is taken in each instance, is generally valid only if at least one of the two numbers x or y is positive, which is not the case here.

See also

• Octonion
• Quaternion
• de Moivre's formula

References

Bibliography

• Nahin, Paul (1998), An Imaginary Tale: the Story of the Square Root of −1, Princeton: Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-02795-1 , explains many applications of imaginary expressions.

External links

• How can one show that imaginary numbers really do exist? – an article that discusses the existence of imaginary numbers.
• In our time: Imaginary numbers Discussion of imaginary numbers on BBC Radio 4.
• 5Numbers programme 4 BBC Radio 4 programme