this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
304 points (95.2% liked)

Science Memes

10348 readers
2585 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.


Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] [email protected] 38 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

The square root of negative 1 is "i". The "i" referrs to an imaginary number. When you square a number (e.g. 2^2 ) the result will always be positive. This is because you are multiplying the number with itself, and a negative number multiplied by another negative number will be positive. So -2 * -2 = 4, -3 * -3 = 9, and so on.

A square root is the inverse of this. It attempts to find what the original number was that was squared, so sqrt(4) = 2, sqrt(9) = 3, and so on. However, what do you do if you have sqrt(-4)? There's no way for a square to result in a negative number, so the result must be imaginary. So sqrt(-4) = 2i, sqrt(-9) = 3i, and so on. As such, sqrt(-1) = i.

For the next part, when you divide one number by another, it is sometimes referred to as [first number] over [second number].

Finally, 8, well, sounds like "ate".

So sqrt(-1)/8 = i/8 = i over eight= I over ate.

(Sorry if this came off as condescending near the end, I'm trying to be thorough in case you aren't a native English speaker)

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

It seems I was only having trouble with the connecting "eight" to "ate", but damn, this is a solid explanation of the other parts too!

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Thank you! I only got as far as i divided by 8... But now I kinda get it (-: |>

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Very thorough. Iโ€™ll just add stylization: โˆšโˆ’ฬ…1ฬ…โ€‰=โ€‰๐‘–

Edit: minus

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Forgot the minus