- #1
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Now this bugs me. First there were no negative numbers. Then there were no square roots to negative numbers. Then every real number had two square roots, but no word on imaginary numbers. Luckily for me, I had a calculator that told me the square root of i wasn't some other type of number or I would have thought of it that way (hey, I was in grade 10!). That meant all complex numbers had two square roots.
Not too long ago I thought "My that's a nice pattern, two square roots, 1 cube root, 2 quad...". Then something occur to me: why didn't every complex number have 3 complex roots, 4 4th roots, etc? Wouldn't that make more sense? The only way to be sure was to try it!
So I grabbed a piece of paper and found 3 complex numbers that, when cubed, equalled 1. "God damnit!" I thought. This was "there's no square root to negative numbers" all over again! I'd just taken it for granted that cube roots were unique because we were always told that in school! *shakes fist at high school*
Obviously, people have known this for a very long time. Why weren't we told this as soon as we were introduced to imaginary numbers? Is there any reason teachers hide this type of information and, in effect, lie by not telling the whole truth?
Not too long ago I thought "My that's a nice pattern, two square roots, 1 cube root, 2 quad...". Then something occur to me: why didn't every complex number have 3 complex roots, 4 4th roots, etc? Wouldn't that make more sense? The only way to be sure was to try it!
So I grabbed a piece of paper and found 3 complex numbers that, when cubed, equalled 1. "God damnit!" I thought. This was "there's no square root to negative numbers" all over again! I'd just taken it for granted that cube roots were unique because we were always told that in school! *shakes fist at high school*
Obviously, people have known this for a very long time. Why weren't we told this as soon as we were introduced to imaginary numbers? Is there any reason teachers hide this type of information and, in effect, lie by not telling the whole truth?