Related papers: A brief tour through the history of complex number…
The history of the development of the concept of complex numbers from the 16th to 19th centuries. The origin and refinement of the geometric and physical meaning of complex numbers, the emergence of vectoral analysis.
In the 16th century, Simon Stevin initiated a modern approach to decimal representation of measuring numbers, marking a transition from the discrete arithmetic practised by the Greeks to the arithmetic of the continuum taken for granted…
Inspired by the relation between the algebra of complex numbers and plane geometry, William Rowan Hamilton sought an algebra of triples for application to three dimensional geometry. Unable to multiply and divide triples, he invented a…
There has been always an ambiguity in division when zero is present in the denominator. So far this ambiguity has been neglected by assuming that division by zero as a non-allowed operation. In this paper, I have derived the new set of…
Quaternions, discovered by Sir William Rowan Hamilton in the 19th century, are a significant extension of complex numbers and a profound tool for understanding three-dimensional rotations. This work explores the quaternion's history,…
We investigate the notion of complex rotation number which was introduced by V.I.Arnold in 1978. Let $f: \mathbb R/\mathbb Z \to \mathbb R/\mathbb Z$ be an orientation preserving circle diffeomorphism and let $\omega \in \mathbb C/\mathbb…
To represent positive integers by regular patterns on a plane or in three-dimensional space may be traced back to the Pythagoreans. The aim of the present article is to explore the possibility of extending the representation framework for…
In this paper I will give a brief history of the discovery (Hamilton, 1843) of quaternions. I will address the issue of why a theory of triplets (the original goal of Hamilton) could not be developed. Finally, I will discuss briefly the…
We define a new class of numbers based on the first occurrence of certain patterns of zeros and ones in the expansion of irracional numbers in a given basis and call them Sagan numbers, since they were first mentioned, in a special case, by…
Some aspects of the development of physics and the mathematics set one think about relation between complex numbers and reality around us. If number to spot as the relation of two quantities, from the fact of existence of complex numbers…
This paper looks at how ancient mathematicians (and especially the Pythagorean school) were faced by problems/paradoxes associated with the infinite which led them to juggle two systems of numbers: the discrete whole/rationals which were…
This essay traces the history of three interconnected strands. Firstly, changes in the concept of number, secondly, the study of the qualities of number, which evolved into number theory, and thirdly, the nature of mathematics itself, from…
Infinitesimals are natural products of the human imagination. Their history goes back to the Greek antiquity. Their role in the calculus and analysis has seen dramatic ups and downs. They have stimulated strong opinions and even vitriol.…
Complex geometry represents a fundamental ingredient in the formulation of the Dirac equation by the Clifford algebra. The choice of appropriate complex geometries is strictly related to the geometric interpretation of the complex imaginary…
Pythagorean triples are the positive integer solutions to the Pythagoras equation for right triangles, a2+b2 = c2. They have been studied for many years, many centuries in fact. In this short paper we present a method for computing…
150 years after the discovery of quaternions, Hamilton's conjecture that quaternions are a fundamental language for physics is reevaluated and shown to be essentially correct, provided one admits complex numbers in both classical and…
The idea of the principle of nested intervals or the concept of convergent sequences which is equivalent to this idea dates back to the ancient world. Archimedes calculated the unknown in excess and deficiency, approximating with two sets…
Geometric number systems, obtained by extending the real number system to include new anticommuting square roots of +1 and -1, provide a royal road to higher mathematics by largely sidestepping the tedious languages of tensor analysis and…
In 2000, J. Shallit introduced a special partial ordering of a subset of positive integers and proposed the problem of finding the set of minimal elements with respect to this ordering. Shallit himself solved this problem for the set of…
The roots of -1 in the set of biquaternions (quaternions with complex components, or complex numbers with quaternion real and imaginary parts) are studied and it is shown that there is an infinite number of non-trivial complexified…