Chapter 17
Getting More Complex with Imaginary Numbers
IN THIS CHAPTER
Sparking your math imagination with imaginary numbers
Performing operations with complex numbers
Dividing and conquering complex numbers and radicals
Facing complex solutions in quadratic equations
Identifying complex roots of polynomials
Imaginary numbers are the results of mathematicians’ imaginations. No, imaginary numbers aren’t real — although is any number real? Can you touch a number (if you don’t count playing with a toddler’s educational toy set)? Can you feel it? Who decided a 9 should be shaped the way it is, and what makes that person right? Does your brain hurt yet?
Mathematicians define real numbers as all the whole numbers, negative and positive numbers, fractions and decimals, radicals — anything you can think of to use in counting, graphing, and comparing amounts. Mathematicians introduced imaginary numbers when they couldn’t finish problems without them. For example, when solving for roots of ...
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