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Wednesday, Sep. 11, 2024

10:16pm EDT

Members: 936

Guests: 1,081

Total Online: 2,017

Complex Numbers

by Robert Waltz

Rated: 18+ · Book · Personal · #1196512

Not for the faint of art.

Complex Numbers

A complex number is expressed in the standard form a + bi, where a and b are real numbers and i is defined by i^2 = -1 (that is, i is the square root of -1). For example, 3 + 2i is a complex number.

The bi term is often referred to as an imaginary number (though this may be misleading, as it is no more "imaginary" than the symbolic abstractions we know as the "real" numbers). Thus, every complex number has a real part, a, and an imaginary part, bi.

Complex numbers are often represented on a graph known as the "complex plane," where the horizontal axis represents the infinity of real numbers, and the vertical axis represents the infinity of imaginary numbers. Thus, each complex number has a unique representation on the complex plane: some closer to real; others, more imaginary. If a = b, the number is equal parts real and imaginary.

Very simple transformations applied to numbers in the complex plane can lead to fractal structures of enormous intricacy and astonishing beauty.

http://www.ddewey.net/mandelbrot/

Signature for Honorable Mentions in 2018 Quill Awards

A signature for exclusive use of winners at the 2019 Quill Awards

Signature for those who have won a Quill Award at the 2020 Quill Awards

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Aiva Raine

about 7 hours ago
In response to "Drop and Gimme Twenty"

Happy 20th. We're glad you joined and doubly glad you've stayed this long. I look forward to reading your daily blog as part of my own daily ritual.

1 Like

Wordsmitty ✍️

about 9 hours ago
In response to "Drop and Gimme Twenty"

Wow. That sounds mature for twenty. Next year you can get some booze to celebrate.

I'm sure we're all glad you did sign up. Enjoy the day.

1 Like

Annette aka Din Djarin

about 9 hours ago
In response to "Drop and Gimme Twenty"

Happy 20th to you!

My username was octobersun2 for the same reason. My first attempt to join somehow didn't work.

1 Like

🌕 HuntersMoon

about 10 hours ago
In response to "Drop and Gimme Twenty"

Happy Anniversary, you old dog...

1 Like

Kåre Enga in Montana

Sep 9, 2024 at 10:57am
In response to "Time Out"

"As long as everyone agrees to it" is paramount.

The Polynesians navigated by the stars. No clocks needed. A different approach. Still... all relative.

1 Like

Legerdemain

Sep 9, 2024 at 10:47am
In response to "Time Out"

I'm not scientific, at all. But what about Earth's wobble? Who accounts for that?

1 Like

🌕 HuntersMoon

Sep 9, 2024 at 10:20am
In response to "Time Out"

This was so heavy... I think I lost 26 microseconds reading it.

1 Like

Elisa: Middle Aged Stik

Sep 8, 2024 at 12:04pm
In response to "Writing It Off"

I am late to the party with my comments, but here we go.

Used to be, I wanted to get published.

I used to want to be published in terms of stories. Nowadays I'd rather be published in terms of photos. And self publishing may be my only option in that regard.

but the travel writing field is crowded with young influenzas who can't write for shit, but look good in selfies.

And before that it was crowded with middle aged socialites with nothing better to do (but did have some level of writing skill).

Other people here have dealt with the limit by deleting old entries. I won't do that. Most never have to worry about the limit, and that's perfectly okay.

I admit that as of late I don't let my book items hit the entry limit. Part of it is my entries are super long (current average being *checks notes* 7.48 kb in size). Part of it is I also feel like book items should end after at most five years. I think of my old paper diaries and how they felt more meaningful when I didn't let their use drag on forever. If I stayed consistent, they'd end maybe at most after a year and a half. They often wrapped up sooner than that. Even moving to online journaling, I appreciate a journal that is finite not based on the number of entries but by time elapsed since the book started having entries added to it. My current journal may last a tad longer than my previous ones, but I imagine I'll wrap it up in late 2027, maybe early 2028. We'll see how much space I have to work with. In the old days, 1000 entries was considered a major achievement of an end point. I hope I can get that much out of it, as I think that's more reasonable. I do think 3000 entries of my kind of work in one place is a bit much.

1 Like

🌕 HuntersMoon

Sep 8, 2024 at 11:00am
In response to "Revisited: "Orange You Glad This Wasn't You?""

Maybe this would help... or at least attract your attention?

1 Like

Robert Waltz

Sep 7, 2024 at 11:39pm
In response to "Spit in the Ocean"

Both commenters today had already received MBs from me this week, so I went back to every entry this week and picked a comment at random.

The final Birthday Week MB goes to:

🌕 HuntersMoon

Thanks, everyone, for reading and participating!

1 Like

August 12, 2024 at 11:32am

#1075125

Lost Soles

Maybe you think you already know the answer to this headline question. Maybe you're even right.

Why Do People Toss Shoes Over Power Lines?
‘Shoefiti’ is everywhere—but not everyone agrees on what it means. Some suspect it's innocent, while others ascribe darker meanings to a dangling pair of kicks.

Odd as it may seem, power lines have become a somewhat popular source of urban fascination.

That's because the power companies are too cheap to bury the lines.

People have wondered why they sometimes sport brightly colored balls...

I always figured it was so the line locations would be visible to pilots.

...why chunks of trees sometimes hang from them...

Because a tree broke and happened to get caught on a power line?

...or why birds love to use them as perches.

Who the hell knows what goes on in a bird's brain? But I'd guess "visibility."

I could click on all the links they provided, but I didn't.

Why do people often see pairs of shoes dangling from power lines?

Because they happen to be looking up at the time?

Lauren Cahn of Reader’s Digest covered a few possible reasons, and not all of them are benign.

The first urban legend I heard was definitely not benign: that it was a gang killing memorial. I've also heard it's a prostitute signal (like a bat-signal, but for whores), or that it indicates a drug dealer's location.

One time, driving through the outskirts of Seattle, I saw what must have been two dozen sneakers, each pair laced together, clustered on a power line like smelly, dingy grapes. I just figured a gang killed someone as he was buying drugs while banging a prostitute.

One popular theory holds that the shoes may be a signal that there’s gang activity in a given neighborhood... Plausible? Sure. But Cahn couldn’t find any police departments that would confirm.

That's because police are basically another gang.

Other stories echo the idea that the shoes could be an impromptu memorial.

Gosh, if you repeat something often enough, it must be true.

Other sources cited nothing more than juvenile mischief.

Sure, but no one wants to believe something that innocent.

The most innocuous explanation? That it’s simply a rite of passage. One columnist for Hidden City Philadelphia wrote in 2012 that the practice was common in the 1970s as a way of discarding old or outgrown sneakers.

Getting a pair of tied-together sneaks to hit an overhead line in such a way as to snag them on it takes skill and/or patience. Or so I'd expect.

More recently, students at the University of Michigan observed that the act was simply commemorating their graduation.

What, they don't let 'em throw mortarboards into the air?

There’s likely no one motive for the shoe-tossing. It may, however, be in decline.

Given the price of sneakers, I'd bet people are wearing them until they fall all the way apart. Also, aren't a lot of them Velcro now?

Whatever the motive for tossing them, the shoes pose a risk of interrupting the power line's performance.

I suppose if there are multiple lines and the shoes touch both and they're not rubber-soled and they get wet...

My best guess? Different reasons in different regions. It's not like all the shady characters in the world got together on the internet and said, "Okay, from now on, shoes thrown over power lines means "drug dealer within one block."

I mean, they could. But that's just asking to get them monitored by a better-funded gang.

4 Like • Comment • View 1 comment

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