> They are terrible choices of name, coined by people who didn't really understand them, and didn't want you to understand them either. Sorry to be blunt, but

> They are terrible choices of name, coined by people who didn't really understand them, and didn't want you to understand them either. Sorry to be blunt, but your comment is horrible. There is far more going on here than you realize. Real numbers have an isomorphism with our reality. We thought we didn't need imaginary numbers to describe reality. They were inteded to be used more as a mathematical tool. Another good example is euclidean vs non-euclidean geometry. They are both incredibly useful, but the former one was though to be "real" and the latter "imaginary". But it turns, physics is okay with us living in a non-euclidean universe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_of_the_universe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_of_the_universe).