There have been a number of Scientific discoveries that seemed to be purely scientific curiosities that later turned out to be incredibly useful. Hertz famously commented about the discovery of radio waves: “I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application.”
Are there examples like this in math as well? What is the most interesting “pure math” discovery that proved to be useful in solving a real-world problem?
Complex numbers. Also known as imaginary numbers. The imaginary number
iis the solution to√-1. And it is really used in quantum mechanics and I think general relativity as well.It’s used extensively in electronic circuit design (where it’s called “j”, as "i’ already meant electronic current).
Also signal processing has i or j all over it.
I’m the akshually guy here, but complex numbers are the combination of a real number and an imaginary number. Agree with you, just being pedantic.
Sure, but 1 is a real number. 😜
Yes, and 1 is also a complex number.
Of course, but 1 is the loneliest number.
2 is as bad as 1: it’s the loneliest number since the number 1.
Electromagnetics as well.