What I'm getting at is that expressing rotation as complex numbers is no different than using cartesian coordinates.  Why, when you multiply two points, would one of the multiples turn negative?
I see no reason you couldn't say i = 1/0.  Then 4*0*i=4.  That makes as much sense.

On 11/10/05, Mathieu Bouchard < matju@artengine.ca> wrote:
On Mon, 7 Nov 2005, Chuckk Hubbard wrote:

>  Not that I don't appreciate the snide commentary, but this is why I'm
> asking. You can't forget the sin*sin part. i stands for "imaginary".
> (slowly: i is "imaginary"). Turning the product of sines into the
> negative product of sines is imaginary. There is no number that,
> squared, equals -1. There is no number that, squared, equals -1. It's
> not really there.

depends on how people define "number". In math, it's usual to use an
extended definition which isn't so limited as to forbid sqrt(-1) from
existing.

also, to understand the word "imaginary" in math, you have to first
understand that its meaning is completely distinct from any meaning of
"imaginary" outside of math.

likewise for Real... "Real" is just a name. Small integers have a
relatively high tangible quality to them, but it gets mostly downhill from
there. "Real" numbers are arguably much less tangible than integer
numbers, rational numbers, algebraic numbers, and then some. The numbers
PI and E are a lot more tangible than almost all (100%) of the Real
numbers.

____________________________________________________________________
Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801 - http://artengine.ca/matju
Freelance Digital Arts Engineer, Montréal QC Canada



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