Imaginary Numbers Are Real [Part 2: A Little History]
Want to learn more or teach this series? Check out the Imaginary Numbers are Real Workbook: www.welchlabs.com/resources.
Imaginary numbers are not some wild invention, they are the deep and natural result of extending our number system. Imaginary numbers are all about the discovery of numbers existing not in one dimension along the number line, but in full two dimensional space. Accepting this not only gives us more rich and complete mathematics, but also unlocks a ridiculous amount of very real, very tangible problems in science and engineering.
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: A Little History
Part 3: Cardan's Problem
Part 4: Bombelli's Solution
Part 5: Numbers are Two Dimensional
Part 6: The Complex Plane
Part 7: Complex Multiplication
Part 8: Math Wizardry
Part 9: Closure
Part 10: Complex Functions
Part 11: Wandering in Four Dimensions
Part 12: Riemann's Solution
Part 13: Riemann Surfaces
Part 2 especially owes a debt to Paul Nahin's excellent book: An Imaginary Tale: The Story of sqrt(-1). Nahin presents a very thorough account of the development of imaginary numbers, which was invaluable in creating this series.
Imagine a mathematician running around the street carrying a sheet of questions finding an opponent. This is basically Pokemon
SQUIREROOTLE, I CHOOSE YOU
@@thegecko1992 SquareRootle*
It uses derivative on e^x, it wasn't very effective
Millenium Problems gon be like Arceus
No, it would be more like a Pokemon Gym. You go to a designated Math Dueling place and somebody gets you into the next match for your skill level.
Mathematicians should continue to have duels. That sounds pretty cool.
Yea!!
It actually caused a lot of groundbreaking mathematics to be lost to time, due to greed. It basically caused proprietary formulas so the mathematicians could keep winning duels.
Kind of like how patents are used today. Not winning duels but ... profit!
Please consider revising your pronunciation of Italian surnames - video is nice but Tartaglia and Del Ferro are suffering in their deathbeds.. :)
Ever heard of MIT Integration Bee? It's basically a math duel tournament.
Why did you abandon calling them lateral numbers?
+Anthony Trupiano Yeah - good point. It's just a question of how much I should break with convention here - lateral makes way more sense, but most people don't know what you're talking about when you say "lateral number".
+Welch Labs I thought they are called complex numbers
***** but a+b = i is impossible because no real numbers exist that are equal to i. if you mean that complex numbers included any combination of real numbers with i then I understand. for example if you mean 6+ 2i is a complex number but not 6 or 6i.
okay cool
Soldier ˙ Wait! The complex numbers include real numbers like √2 and imaginary numbers like i and 6i. However, like many groups of numbers, the term "complex number" may only refer to the non-real, non-strictly imaginary numbers (a+bi, where a and b are real)
Holy shit. Math duels? Are you serious? That's pretty hilarious.
anarki777 It's still a thing. There's even math Olympic. I think one of Numberphile's host is a champion.
anarki777 Expecto Numerum!
yeah they were actually math freestyle battles they were pretty dope. only XVIth century kids will remember 😫👌🏻🔥
The Romans did maths duels and the Egyptians played duel monsters you do the maths!
Engard
this is a KZhead gold mine
Ryan Nelson yeah
3:35 That is not quite correct, the current definition of the square root only accounts for the positive number whose square is the number inside the square root, the only time you inlude +/- is when you're solving an equation. The square root itself is only defined for one positive number.
@ GZA yes you are correct. I don't know why many people in the comments haven't pointed this out!
I didnt know some ppl think root9=-3
This is only for notation purposes, ie it is the pricipal root.
bruh you've said it a month before me so sad:)
I was looking for this comment!!
This math duel thing is presented like you can make an anime out of it
You watched dr stone?
Yesssss! !!
I have been searching for squaring numbers animation or explanation on x,y and I still haven’t found yet all of what I find is 3 squared = 9 and bla bla bla😤
Actually that's just what we do in exams
mmm yes
A HUGE thumbs up for the historical context, which math texts don't provide. Interesting series! Keep up the good work.
Words are just not enough to explain how awesome these series are. Only true mathematician can understand that how difficult it is to prepare such lectures. I have been searching for such kind of study from many years. I am truly great-full for this series.
3920506-13232-39850-23...422-4670-74!!!!! translation: only true mathematicians speak in numbers....
How long did it take to cut out all the continents of the world?
+Lorcan O'Brien Good question - that didn't actually take too long. Shooting with camera motion, however, takes FOREVER.
Nice profile picture
Nerds before: "I just murdered someone in a math duel and I'm on the 30th page solving this single equation" Nerds now: "Why this python code not work"
beautiful videos! LOVE THEM
Tu canal es una mierda ahora
This is just long winded CRAP, because there ISN'T one definitive correct answer to this !
@@MilloSteve Jajjaja si
@@MilloSteve Con lo mitico que era el canal en su momento
This is gold. Never have I seen better VFX used in presentations for such a basic topic.
This playlist is awesome!! I love learning the history of the math while learning the math! This is how it should be taught in general.
This is very very useful. I like it a lot. Thank you for your hardwork on this video!
Thanks for watching!
Just wanted to pop in & compliment the effort in these videos, love the math/history/stickman commentary combo. Hope to see more!
sqr(9) = 3 and sqr(9) != -3. At least in the usual definition. Since you define the squareroot as the inverse function of f: [0, infinity] -> [0, infinity]; x -> x². But the solution to x²=9 is x=+/-sqr(9)=+/-3
Glad someone pointed it out.
the square root of a positive number (or 0) is unique and always positive (or 0)
@@danielfloresretamal2471 unique and nonnegative
@@dabzdavid2378 that summarizes it
You guys get that by your own definition i is not the square root of -1.
I love the way this mixes history and math. And handwriting and computer animation. Absolutely brilliant. Should be one of my favourite math videos now. Added: It is actually almost addictive ... I am going to watch the rest of the videos even though I know the stuff.
So glad you made these videos...! you're like a master chef here, adding just the right amount of history spice.
wow....this series is addictive....I am binge revising my school algebra
Manjunath Navalgund I hate math and I like this for some reason
this video is so underrated man its so freaking amazing i'm going to show it to everyone i know
Bonus for deriving the quadratic formula in like 2 seconds.
You make math interesting for a reason so so many math curriculums fail to see. You include the context. It's one thing having formulas thrown at me, and the rules for solving them, and being told to memorize. It's another thing entirely to find out why those formulas were made to begin with.
Amen!!
@WelchLabsVideo I want you to know I found you through your atom bomb videos. I'd also like you to know the quality of your videos holds up 6 years later. You should be very very proud of yourself mister professor dad.
@@WelchLabsVideoPlease is your info from history of mathematics by Dan Burton ? If not then can you share your resource(s)?
amazing info and props for explaining all the details. gives great insight into how maths develops. you guys are doing a great stuff !
LOVE THE FACT THAT YOU BRING MATH'S TO LIVE AND VISUALIZABLE
I'm literally in love with this channel
Couldn't stop with the first video. Can't stop with the second. Gotta see the third!
1:40 mouth open in wonder! Thank you so much for going through the trouble of bringing me stuff closer I could have learned at school but hadn't paid attention (or had bad teachers, I suppose)!
you make algebra look fun and love the history i never knew
Math is useless in real life
Math has never been this interesting!
But it's interesting to answer your comment.
@@EduardoHerrera-fr6bd it's interesting too reply yours too.
@@zlatan4467 yours too
Awesome series! I had basically no intuition for imaginary (or lateral) numbers before watching this, and now I still have almost no intuition, but it's not nothing, which is something!
This is my first time on your channel. I subscribed right after I finished watching the first video because I saw the ad at the VERY END of the video! #Respect 🙏
Whoa! This is a shocker to me, right from the start. I was no great student in 1965, but numbers always came easily to me, and I remember a happy 98% on our (New York) statewide final exam in algebra. My takeaway from that time is that quadratics were solved on inspection, and that there was no mechanism to find the roots. The concept of a universal formula, as I recall, was actively denied. I wonder if this is senility! What could possibly have made me think that? Well, it's a delight to see it now, all these years later.
These are great! Love math history! If I may make a request. Can you leave the footnotes up longer? I was not able to read them. Or perhaps you could annotate them in the description.
I just watched this video and got amazed with the concept, everyone who has studied complex numbers has thought about its practical use but got no answers here I got something new.
Great history lesson for myself and for my students! Thanks for sharing this!
So that is how...Vertassium got the term of math duel?
Yeah, looks like he copied these videos.
3:19 the 2nd line is -(15^2)/27 the 3rd line should be -225/27 (or simplified), which is not -121 what gives
That's a good point
He wrote it wrong. It is supposed to be 15^3 as in the 1st line, c^3, which yields 15^3/27 AKA 125
Amazing!! you simply know very well how to explain something in a way we can connect the dots on the basics we know to topics that are very unintuitive. the example of negative numbers and the negative apples is an amazing way to finally make sens about imaginary numbers
I just discovered this channel and absolutely adore it!! Can you make another video about the history of golden ratio, fibonacci no. and pi??? My school's maths club would be delighted for the videos.
The square root of 9 is strictly 3. When approaching x^2 = 9, only when you square root do you get the plus-minus in front of the positive root to indicate +-3
+WoLF42 No. Both 3 and -3 are square roots of 9, since 3*3 = 9 and (-3)*(-3) = (-1)*(-1)*(3)*(3) = 3*3 = 9. Depending on what problem you are solving, different solutions will make sense but both positive and negative values are valid square roots when you have no other constraints.
pipolwes000 this is the general mistake we all make..i know -3 ×-3 is 9 but when taking square root only positive values appers...if u try to use the -ve values then there are ways to prove 1=2 which is not true...i dont know how much maths u have studied and i will also not tell u to believe me but try to gather information by yourself and i assure u 500% u will believe what i am trying to tell u
WoLF42 glad to find someone identified the mistake👍
Yesss, you are right!
pipolwes000 Principle square root is a function, you can't get two answers!
In Italian "the letter pair gl, if followed by an i or an e, represents a sound similar to ll in million.", so basically, the g in Tartaglia is silent.
arekolek nnnnnnnope.
@@ZombiesSlaier He's right. It's pronounced Tartalya.
@@1violalass helllll no, it's something like Tartaja, if you know a little bit of Spanish, Italian "GL" is like Spanish "LL"
I am italian and nope, you're ABSOLUTELY wrong. Its sound is distinguished in "hard" or "sweet", depending on the vowel at the end. "Glabro" sounds "hard, "consiglio" sounds sweet. To hear how it sounds, please check any glottology vocabulary. In NO case, the sound of G is silent.
This is one of the best explanations I heard about anything. Incredibly well done and "easy" to understand! I wish they could teach at university or school like this :/
One of the best video I have seen on KZhead,It's awesome .Thanks WelchLabs
Thank you!
I wish I had a math teacher like this at school :(
3:18 I’m confused, think I’m missing something... how does (15^2/27) equal 125?
I was also confused, but there is small mistake. Should be 15^3/27.
This is so good I am actually understanding this stuff! Great videos.
Love the visual means of educating about this, for me, hard topic. Definately better explained than by my math professor.
Mario says: Zero is just a placeholder Luigi says: Numbers are lame, let's invade something
Lol
Zero is the capital letter in every equation ie, 0+6/2(0+3) = 0+1. What y'all are doing here is not maths... it's not an equation... it's a function... it's code... Binary code... FX function is not about working out the area of part of a circle. FX function is about drawing circles and curves using pixels! Remember FX Graphics in 1990?? In binary code, we don't use a capital 0 to start equations and we do not recognise brackets at all... 6/2(3) = 6/2*3 = 9. Maths is all but lost, binary code is the new religion. A religion where the devil has tricked u into believing there are infinite universes, black holes, wormholes, faster than light travel, an abundance of life in our galaxy, at the same time convincing u that he doesn't exist, and that even in infinite universes, there is not a god in any of them o.0
x^3 = 15x + 4 has three real-valued solutions, the simplest of which is 4. 4^3 = 64. 15*4 + 4 = 64. Apparently, you need imaginary numbers to solve it, even though the solution is real. Interesting.
tifforo1 I was trying to approach to the solution with Bolzano's theorem and found it out too XD Also, what about using Ruffini 1 0 -15 -4 0 4 16 4 ---------------- 1 4 1 0 x^2+4x+1 x= (-4+-(16-4)^1/2)/2 = 2+-[2•(3)^1/2] = 2• [1+-(3)^1/2] There's the other two Maybe it's just that their formulas were useless xD
Your videos really are great! You explain it truly elementary and illustrative, so that one can really imagine what is going on I think. Thank you for that and keep it up please!:-)
Nobody can explain any math concept like you. Salute !
how can you let 3uv+c = 0??
Umm I've been taught that square root of 9 is just 3.. Calling it a negative 4 is actually a wrong concept.. negative square root of 9 gives us negative 3..
sqrt(9) = 3 or (-3), is how I learned it though
Good video. Minor critique: when you use the radical symbol for the square root of a number, it always stands for the positive root, never the negative.
Good video, yet again! I like this series but please can we have a brief recap at the end of each episode?
+Ross Boyd Great idea, I'll see if I can integrate these with future videos.
i was watching US car crash vids & somehow i ended up here... now, for part 3, bye for now :)
3:22 2nd and 3th lines 15*15/27=125 wtf????? it equals something like 8,33
It's supposed to be 15^3, not 15^2, and 15^3/27 does equal 125.
Fantastic Videos. I like the time line approach. It build a a better understanding . Thank you so much . This imaginary number have be bugging me for a long time . Didn't know the maths greats were in the same boat.
Oh my god, this is as good as mr. Robot. Can't wait to binge watch it!
Just watched Veritasium
I thought the root of a number, your example square root of 9, was defined as the _positive_ solution to the equation "x^2 = 9"? While -3 is also a solution of that it is not the square root of 9? That's how I learned it.
+SoWeMeetAgain This is correct. A negative number can never be a square root by definition.
+SoWeMeetAgain I also agree. -3 is not a square root of 9, though it is a solution to the equation x^2 = 9.
+SoWeMeetAgain *"In mathematics, a square root of a number a is a number y such that y^2 = a, in other words, a number y whose square (the result of multiplying the number by itself, or y × y) is a.[1] For example, 4 and −4 are square roots of 16 because 4^2 = (−4)^2 = 16."* - Wikipedia I think you're talking about principal square roots.
ฟ้าสรร ฮอว์ส yeah, that seems to be what the english wikipedia says. German wikipedia says it's defined as the positive number. See de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wurzel_%28Mathematik%29 the formula in the subsection "Wurzel aus negativen Zahlen"
From Algebra 1: For any real number n, the sqrt of n^2 = |n|. Proof available upon request.
These videos are not getting nearly enough views. Great work!
your videos are of top-notch quality and content !
It's Fior not Foir -.- you even said it right but wrote it "Foir"
Davy Ker It is right in the subtitles, though
Davy Ker no it's foir
Yes : Antonio Maria Del Fiore
The square root of 9 is not "also negative 3", the square root is positive by definition!
Negative 3 *is* also a square root of 9. A square root isn't positive by definition; though the positive root is also known as the "Principal root," and that _is_ what he used the symbol for in this video. So he's still kinda wrong. But, we knew what he meant.
+ImmortalisPeregrinu You're wrong. The *equation* has two solutions, but the *square root* of something is *always positive*. x^2=9 ** x=3 and x=(-3). But *sqrt(9)=3*. The square root is positive by definition. You should solve this equation knowing that *sqrt(x^2)=abs(x)*. x^2=9 sqrt(x^2)=sqrt(9) abs(x) =*3* x=3 and x=(-3)
Hoo Dini The square root *IS NOT POSITIVE BY DEFINITION.* Please read: mathworld.wolfram.com/SquareRoot.html "Note that any positive real number has two square roots, one positive and one negative." Square root is a noun, Taking the principle square root is what you are referring to. Extra: *Solutions of a polynomial are also referred to as roots;* if there were only positive ones, unless all quadratics had multiplicities, only having roots greater than zero would break the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra for equations as simple as x^2-1=0.
Also, try putting sqrt(x^2) in a graphing calculator, CAS, or Google. It will show you the result |x| and graph it for you.
Hoo Dini I'm not insinuating that the range of the sqrt function includes negative numbers. It is considered a function because it it limited to show all square roots greater than zero. *BUT THE RANGE OF THIS SQUARE ROOT FUNCTION IS NOT THE FULL SET OF SQUARE ROOTS.* 'All' square roots will still include negatives. Again, please read what I linked you. It explains this. And for the love of god, stop wasting my time.
I just wanted to remind what imaginary numbers were about, since I wanna to learn about quaternions, and I came across these videos. I remembered they were cool af and I wasn't wrong. Amazing series, thank you man. Actually if you did videos regarding quaternions in a similar way it would be so nice. For now I will stick to 3b1b videos.
This series is incredibly well made and explained. Thanks.
Thanks for watching!
You're wrong at 3:50, with the principal square root definition, every square root has only a positive answer. There are no negative answers to square roots.
+David MacCumber, you don't really understand what square root is, do you?
+Nick Sm Rarely do we consider the negative solution to square roots. Except for perhaps in the quadratic formula. Which is why when you type in sqrt(9) in any calculator you only get 3, not +/- 3.
+Nick Sm Just scroll down and you will find others discussing this same idea. Although +/- 3 is a solution to x^2 = 9, it is not a solution to sqrt(9). For square roots, it's just the positive answer. Do YOU understand what a square root is??
David MacCumber , √ sign is used for denoting only positive number. So, it's not really a square root sign, this is a so called principal (or arithmetic) square root sign. Square root is denoted by ±√. Thus, yes, his notation isn't accurate but his words are correct.
+Nick Sm true
...so imaginary numbers are real but I can't do a/0? ahuh, i'm onto you mathematicians.
i think it should just equal 0, if you divide something into zero pieces you get nothing
you're mixing it up. what you said would make sense if it was "0/a", not "a/0". (and 0/a does equal 0 like you believe it should)
Grant Davis i know that 0/x = 0
heheh, sorry. What I was saying was that a/0 wouldn't be like dividing something into zero pieces--it would be more like seeing how many 0's can fit into a. Even after infinitely many zeros added together, you still wind up with zero. Hence the "undefined" as opposed to something like "infinity"
Grant Davis ok, thanks for explanation, I just thought it was dividing in pieces :D
Subbed going watch the rest of the series now!! :D
These videos have shown me how much fun a regular math class has sucked out of learning math. I’m actually interested in math for once in my life
3:40 is factually wrong, square roots cannot be negative by definition.
What about cube root of negatives??? get rekt maths
the cube root of any negative real number is just another negative real number. 2³=8, and (-2)³=-8
get rekt scrub.
Like there are two square root for every nonzero real number, there are three cube roots for every nonzero real number. One of the is real and the otehr two are complex (the three cube roots form an equilateral triangle in the complex plane).
Lmao you thought you're a mathematician, you're just a gamer
This comment made my day
I literally clicked the pdf for download accidentally but its a great treasure. Thank you for spreading math.
Top tier videos on the topic, perfection.
Is it really that hard to try to pronounce Italian names correctly?... -__-
Is it hard for Italians to pronounce English names correctly? I'm guessing at times it is. Oh my bad, you said 'try to pronounce' not actually do it correctly. I'm sure they 'tried' and failed.
yes
Excellent videos. Added to playlist.
This is awesome man! I regret coming here so late...
Thank's for the brazilian translate, subscribed! This is gold!
I started to look at the last video and this video in my hunt of finding out about the number"i". It turned out to be even more interesting then i imagine. :)
Çevirenlere çok teşekkürlerimi sunuyorummm Perfect video :)
한글자막 고마워요!! 다른 시리즈도 있으면 좋겠습니다ㅎㅎ
Look there is enough confusion here with out bring that into it!
Beautiful video, please another with example equation and explain.
This is very good! Maths is curiously and very good, while very questions than or very true
고마워! 우리 교수님이 수업을 너무 못하셔서 수학 포기할까 했는데, 당신 너무 잘 가르치는거같아. 한국어 번역까지 있어서 너무 행복하다. 고맙다. 당신의 채널 구독하고 좋아요 눌렀다.
Me gusta la forma particular de tus videos, impregnado de historia y no como una simple explicación de un ejercicio particular.
Nicelyexplained. I really enjoyed it!
really enjoying this history and learning lesson. subscribed for more...
Brother you are just awesome .... That was an interesting video... Real love from India
Bro I am from India I love your concept to make videos in this topic I fully support u... Go ahead
Thanks for watching!
And you have subtitles! You won another subscriber
in adding and subtracting *additive differences* (0 the magic number) in multiplying and dividing *ratios* (1 the magic number)
The square root of 9 is +3 ( √9 = 3 ) because the square root of a positive number is always greater than or equal to zero ( √9 ≥ 0 ). Therefore, the square root of 9 is not -3. Another very different thing is this: x² = 9 √x² = √9 |x| = 3 x = ±3
Well done explanation. Thanks
These are so addicting! I love math now!
wow, thanks for the videos! 3:03 makes me think of music notation!
This is so cool. Best math lesson ever!
I really like this series. It's really interesting!
Thank you!
You have a mistake on the third line of del Ferros solution for the cubic formula, where v^3, in (u^2+2uv+v^3)(u+v)+c(u+v)=d, should be v^2.