Jazzy gal said:
does anyone know if the whole complex number topic is the hardest, easiest or kinda in the middle of everything we will be learning. Ive just started the course and i can do complex numbers... after heaps of practice but if it just gets harder and harder, then i will probably give up. If anyone has any idea what i should expect from the next year and can give me some advice for surviving, then i would really, really apreciate it! thanx
ps. does anyone else feel like they are loosing their mind over the concept of 'creating' numbers? or is it just me?
The complex numbers topic is kind of in the middle. But don't let this discourage you. It is the first topic you have done in 4U, and it is tottaly unlike anything you have done before, and so it is v hard to wrap you head around at the start. But as you get going it will become easier, trust me.
In terms of "OMG, there complex, they don't EXIST, that's crazy!", I wan't to explain it in two ways:
1. Negative numbers don't exist. Can you have -3 of something? No. You can go sqrt(2) of a distance, (pi) of a distance, but not -5. They aren't "REAL" either.
OK, so (1) was the explanation I got at high school, and I didn't find it very satisfing, so now I give you the one I heard last year in university, whihc I found far better:
2. "i" is just the name for one of the roots of the equation x^2 + 1 = 0. That's all. It's just a special root beacuse we don't yet have a symbol to tell us the root of this equation.
