4 ms·
I actually see that as an argument against using j. The meanings of a unit vector in real space and a dimensional unit in imaginary space are different concepts
by rm999 14y ago
I actually see that as an argument against using j. The meanings of a unit vector in real space and a dimensional unit in imaginary space are different concepts even if it's common to represent both in 2-dimensions plots. It seems to me that this would only cause confusion/ambiguity. When I look at a plot I want to know what it's representing as soon as possible, and the way the axes are labeled is part of what helps me.
- hkmurakami 14y agoExactly what I thought. I studied EE in undergrad so I used this sort of notation all the time, and my thought upon reading the article was that I'd be rather confused upon looking at the graph and would struggle to figure out what it was even representing.
- jonpeda 14y agoYes, ultimately we are bound by tradition, since changing over to any system is too expensive and confusing. Path dependence and local optima. See also: English vs Metric units.
- eranki 14y agoagreed. i think this convenience is confusing. also would make it hard to explain that a two-dimensional complex vector contains two complex numbers, not one.