16
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→The "real" world
To some I say don't be misled by the connotations of the terms. To others I say do not deliberately mislead our young readers by adding patent nonsense to the math articles. There is nothing obscure, arcane, or hard to understand about the basic math concepts taught from primary up to high school levels. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] <sup>[[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]]</sup> 16:40, 23 August 2008 (EDT)
To some I say don't be misled by the connotations of the terms. To others I say do not deliberately mislead our young readers by adding patent nonsense to the math articles. There is nothing obscure, arcane, or hard to understand about the basic math concepts taught from primary up to high school levels. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] <sup>[[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]]</sup> 16:40, 23 August 2008 (EDT)
:Without knowing much about maths, I'm pretty sure that's not right, Ed. The term 'imaginary number' comes from Descartes' work [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_G%C3%A9om%C3%A9trie ''La Geometrie''] (pg. 380), where he uses the term to distinguish between those possible roots of an equation which are actually possible according to his understanding, and those which are not, or imaginary. --[[User:AKjeldsen|AKjeldsen]] 18:13, 23 August 2008 (EDT)
:Without knowing much about maths, I'm pretty sure that's not right, Ed. The term 'imaginary number' comes from Descartes' work [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_G%C3%A9om%C3%A9trie ''La Geometrie''] (pg. 380), where he uses the term to distinguish between those possible roots of an equation which are actually possible according to his understanding, and those which are not, or imaginary. --[[User:AKjeldsen|AKjeldsen]] 18:13, 23 August 2008 (EDT)
::Historically, you're absolutely right, mathematically, less so... Mathematicians often are not at their best when naming new inventions (''elliptic functions'' springs to my mind), so we end up with somewhat unappropriate labels. And then, there's the tendency to overload words, as ''''normal'''' (must be the most favorite mathematical term ever). But that's alright, as there's always the definition to rely on (and these tend to converge over time to a final state...) A problem arises when someone tries to ''interpret'' the label, using the -well- normal meanings. Much of the Sokal hoax relied on this...--[[User:DirkE|DirkE]] 18:14, 25 August 2008 (EDT)
==Again: Real vs. Imaginary==
==Again: Real vs. Imaginary==