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. |
Wars have been fought over less than this. The Man Who Went to War With Canada For centuries, the United States and Canada’s only remaining land border dispute has been kept alive by a single family. Article is from Atlas Obscura and 2019, but the Wikipedia article suggests that the issue hasn't been resolved over the last five years. After probably a few hours at sea, they reached the island’s rocky shore, and managed to land among the island’s main residents: puffins, razorbills, murres, and Arctic terns. If I were that guy, I'd have pointed at one of the latter birds and proclaimed: "It's my tern now!" Depending on whom you ask, Machias Seal Island is either off the coast of Maine or of Grand Manan. It’s also either American or Canadian. It is the only place with this particular unsettled identity that you can actually stand on top of. Although the ownership of some stretches of water is still contested, this island—and neighboring North Rock, which is even smaller and barer—are the last crumbs of their land the two countries don’t agree on. Just wait a few years, and climate change will settle the debate for us. I feel obliged to point out that while I've never been to this island, it sits within easy distance of the easternmost point of the continental US: Quoddy Head Lighthouse. I visited that spit of land when I decided to travel from it to the westernmost point, in the state of Washington. Quoddy Head was the easier of the two to reach, requiring significantly less hiking and way fewer bears. The article delves into the source of the land dispute, then: If the world were more just, this would all be moot: The people of the Passamaquoddy Nation likely used the island long before anyone else even knew it existed. (“Machias,” also the name of precipitous local river, is a Passamaquoddy word that means “bad little falls.”) Instead, even as their identifications and affiliations have shifted, the neighbors have kept squabbling over it, like a pair of growing siblings in a shared bedroom. Look, let's hope it stays on the "siblings" level of quarrel. We don't want to go to war with Canada. We have a history of losing said wars. The rest of the (rather long) article delves into the American side of things, focusing, as the headline implies (look at that, a headline matching up with the text), on one person's, or more properly one family's, quest to keep the US claim to the island. I won't quote further, but it's a way more interesting read than the Wiki page. |