Re:How the modern world arose from imaginary numbers
by pdonis on Thursday February 10, 2022 @10:59AM
(#30288025)
> Electromagnetic field changes are described by complex numbers.
You can do this, but there's no need to. You can describe electromagnetism using only real numbers.
A better argument for imaginary numbers being necessary to describe the universe is quantum mechanics, since quantum interference (in particular destructive interference) means that two possible events that each have a positive probability taken in isolation can cancel each other out, implying that probabilities can combine with a minus sign. And that means that probability amplitudes, which are square roots of probabilities, can have nonzero imaginary parts.
You can do this, but there's no need to. You can describe electromagnetism using only real numbers.
A better argument for imaginary numbers being necessary to describe the universe is quantum mechanics, since quantum interference (in particular destructive interference) means that two possible events that each have a positive probability taken in isolation can cancel each other out, implying that probabilities can combine with a minus sign. And that means that probability amplitudes, which are square roots of probabilities, can have nonzero imaginary parts.