3 ms·
"If +1, -1, and √-1 had been called direct, inverse and lateral units, instead of positive, negative, and imaginary (or impossible) units, such an obscurity wou
by DigiDigiorno 5y ago
"If +1, -1, and √-1 had been called direct, inverse and lateral units, instead of positive, negative, and imaginary (or impossible) units, such an obscurity would have been out of the question."
- Gauss (translated), a couple hundred years ago.
Of all the things to rename, this may be at the top of my list. I think some kids get lost in the abstraction specifically because the name "imaginary" isnt helpful in understanding the underlying concept.
- gumby 5y ago> Of all the things to rename, this may be at the top of my list. I think more confounding is that the electron carries a negative charge. This mistake goes back to Franklin but we can’t blame him; from the data he had he had a 50/50 chance of getting it right.
- BlueTemplar 5y agoHaving separate terms for "entropy" and "(lack of) information" is IMHO way worse : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27095212 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27095212