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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.




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February 18, 2023 at 11:38am
February 18, 2023 at 11:38am
#1045037
Entry #5 into "Journalistic Intentions" Open in new Window. [18+] this month: Happy Ride  Open in new Window.

You know what always struck me as idiotic? And I do mean "always," as in "from the moment I first found out about it as a kid."

Gendered bikes.

It took me a while to figure out the reason for it, and to this day I'm not sure if I came up with the right idea or not: girls' bikes have the lowered crossbar to accommodate a skirt. I mean, that was the only thing I could figure out, as all genders have legs (barring accidents, disease, or thalidomide), and you don't ride a bike with your genitals, so what else could possibly be the difference?

I keep calling it a crossbar. It probably has a more proper name. But you know what I'm talking about: that upper rod between the saddle thingy and the handlebar whatchamacallit.

I may not be an expert on bicycles, okay? The ones in the linked prompt picture both have the lowered crossbar doohickey.

Anyway, it didn't help my bewilderment that where I spent my childhood, I didn't see a lot of girls wearing skirts or dresses. It was a rural area, and everyone wore pants or shorts, including my mom.

But enforcement of strict gender divides was even more of a thing back then (though I thought it was silly), so you'd see these girls riding around with their girly bikes (rarely pink) with the lowered crossbar. "They're just doing it because their parents thought: 'have girl. girl want bike. girl need girl bike. girl on boy bike may grow up to like girls.'" Or something like that; I don't know.

Worse, the "boy" bikes were considered standard, and the "girl" bikes, the aberration.

Seriously. No one rides a bike wearing a skirt, dress, or kilt, do they? I don't think I've ever seen it. Nor have I seen a woman riding a horse side-saddle except in, like, picture books or period (not that kind of period) movies. ("What has two legs on one side and four on the other?" was an actual riddle I saw in a kids' book at one point. "A horse with a lady riding." "What?")

And then I reached puberty. Most kids "hit" puberty; for me, it was more of a gradual thing. And that's when I realized the terrible, awful, what-the-fuck truth about life: in a sane world, in a world that makes sense, it should be the other way around, with the bikes for guys having the lowered crossbar. And yes, I learned that the hard way. That is a pain I will never, ever forget. I'll be lying on my deathbed, racked with cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and a toothache, and I'll be like "Remember that time you racked your brand-new balls on a bike when you were 12?"

Didn't stop me from riding a bike (well... for more than a day or so, anyway). But I never did make sense out of gendered bikes.


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