Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Imaginary numbers push the boundaries of calculus and other branches of math. Hill Street Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images ...

Mathematicians were disturbed, centuries ago, to find that calculating the properties of certain curves demanded the seemingly impossible: numbers that, when multiplied by themselves, turn negative.

Digital images now carry some of the most sensitive information in modern life, from medical scans and satellite imagery to ...

If you have ever read advanced textbooks or papers about electronics, you may have been surprised to see the use of complex numbers used in the analysis of AC circuits. A complex number has two parts: ...

Imaginary numbers might seem like unicorns and goblins — interesting but irrelevant to reality. But for describing matter at its roots, imaginary numbers turn out to be essential. They seem to be ...

In this video series, I will show you how to divide complex numbers. We do this by eliminating the imaginary number in the denominator by producing equivalent fractions. We do this by multiplying by \ ...

As any algebra student is likely to ask a teacher, "Who ever uses complex numbers anyway?" The obvious answer, of course, is "math teachers." But that's just the beginning. Most scientists and ...

In this math tutorial I will show you how to multiply complex numbers. Complex numbers come in the form of a + bi. Multiplying complex numbers carry some of the same properties as multiplying ...

Physicists construct theories to describe nature. Let us explain it through an analogy with something that we can do in our everyday life, like going on a hike in the mountains. To avoid getting lost, ...

To a nonmathematician, having the letter “i” represent a number that does not quite exist and is “imaginary” can be hard to wrap your head around. If you open your mind to this way of thinking, ...