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 |    Not for the faint of art. |
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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. ![Merit Badge in Quill Award
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Congratulations on winning an honorable mention for Best Blog at the 2018 Quill Awards for [Link To Item #1196512] . *^*Smile*^* This award was sponsored by the blogging consortium including [Link To Item #30dbc] , [Link To Item #blogcity] , [Link To Item #bcof] and [Link To Item #1953629] . For more details, see [Link To Item #quills] .](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/type-Blogging-2180.gif) ![Merit Badge in Highly Recommended
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I highly recommend your blog.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/Kudos-Highly_Recommended.gif) ![Merit Badge in Opinion
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| The hated month of February begins. Appropriately enough, the random number generator pulled up a plague article. And no, they didn't pinpoint the exact flea. As the deadliest pandemic in recorded history – it killed an estimated 50 million people in Europe and the Mediterranean between 1346 and 1353 — it's a question that has plagued scientists and historians for nearly 700 years. ...really, NPR? You're going to do that pun? Who do you think you are, the BBC? Incidentally, other sources put the number of victims higher than 50 million. That would be a significant number of people today; at the time, it was likely over 10% of the world's human population. Now, researchers say they've found the genetic ancestor of the Black Death, which still infects thousands of people each year. Which is not what the headline implied. New research, published this month in the journal Nature, provides biological evidence that places the ancestral origins of Black Death in Central Asia, in what is now modern-day Kyrgyzstan. See what lack of vowels will do? Oh, and by "this month" they mean when the article was published, back in June of last year. What's more, the researchers find that the strain from this region "gave rise to the majority of [modern plague] strains circulating in the world today," says Phil Slavin, co-author on the paper and a historian at the University of Stirling in Scotland. One could ask where that strain came from in turn. The article goes on to explain the various strands of evidence that led them to this conclusion, and it was apparently a multidisciplinary effort. That's the part I find interesting. Does this mean that the mystery of the origin of Black Death has been solved? "I would be very cautious about stretching it that far," says Hendrik Poinar, evolutionary geneticist and director of the McMaster University Ancient DNA Center in Ontario, Canada, who was not involved in the study. "Pinpointing a date and a specific site for emergence is a nebulous thing to do." I'm just including this because I didn't want anyone to get the impression it's settled science, as the headline might make one believe. When the Black Death swept across Eurasia, no one had the slightest clue what DNA was. Or a cell. Or hell, even the notion that organisms too small to see could be what caused the plague. No, they thought it was God's punishment, or witches' curses, or a comet or some shit like that. I'm just throwing that out there because I continue to see romanticization of the past. While today sucks, the past sucked worse. |
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