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Gauss complained about the name too. He suggested using "Direct, inverse and lateral numbers" instead of "positive, negative and imaginary numbers". Imaginary
by mathnmusic 5y ago
Gauss complained about the name too. He suggested using "Direct, inverse and lateral numbers" instead of "positive, negative and imaginary numbers".
Imaginary numbers are not pairs. Complex numbers are. Continuing Gauss, I'd rename "complex numbers" as "planar numbers".
- Natsu 5y agoI kinda think of them as 'orthogonal' numbers.
- carlmr 5y agoThat I think is the best alternative name I've heard yet. Since you describe two orthogonal dimensions. Also vector numbers could be somewhat of a useful name, since they behave like a 2D vector (or even higher dimensional vectors for e.g. quaternions)
- ogogmad 5y ago"Vector numbers" for something purely 2D seems dodgy to me. There are lots of unital algebras, even in 2 and 4 dimensions, and none of them should hog the name "vector numbers" as they all have equal entitlement to the name.
- abecedarius 5y agothey'll always be twirly numbers to me
- ogogmad 5y agoDual numbers and double numbers are also planar. Don't know how relevant this is, but I've been thinking about a better naming scheme for hypercomplex number systems. I came to it after seeing a paper about the "dual-complex numbers", which are not a straightforward complexification of the dual numbers as one might expect. Hopefully, the scheme should be pronounceable, and without the possibility of confusing it for something else. This town needs law! I'm thinking of asking for suggestions for what it should be exactly.
- agumonkey 5y agowow, `naming is hard` is way older than I thought