The nondaily report [n+k+1]
Jan. 24th, 2005 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sniffnoyToday in math we began... complex analysis! Or rather today was the obligatory "things you already know about complex numbers" class. Dr. Nevard explained the complex numbers were not invented to solve arbitrary quadratic equations - why would anybody need to do that? - but rather because, if you use the explicit solution of the general cubic equation, any cubic equation with 3 real roots will necessarily involve going through the complexes to calculate them.
...OK, so that, we didn't know.
A bit ago Dr. Nevard gave us the problem of figuring out which fractional linear transformations of C correspond to rotations of the Riemann sphere. I haven't been working on the problem very much, but from thinking about rotations of the Riemann sphere, I came up with the following amusing fallacy[3]:
Let's rotate the Riemann sphere by π about the z-axis. In C, what are we doing? We're sending z to -z. But the north pole, ∞, remains fixed. Thus ∞=-∞, ∞+∞=0.
Tom is actually going to do his lit project on Proofs and Refutations, which, apparently, consists mostly of faulty proofs that V-E+F=2.
-Sniffnoy
[3]Not that it would actually fool anyone, except possibly Billy.
--
"Office supplies are necessary for LIFE! They separate us from
single-celled protozoa! With brightly colored plastic index tabs!"
-Cecilia, Nukees
...OK, so that, we didn't know.
A bit ago Dr. Nevard gave us the problem of figuring out which fractional linear transformations of C correspond to rotations of the Riemann sphere. I haven't been working on the problem very much, but from thinking about rotations of the Riemann sphere, I came up with the following amusing fallacy[3]:
Let's rotate the Riemann sphere by π about the z-axis. In C, what are we doing? We're sending z to -z. But the north pole, ∞, remains fixed. Thus ∞=-∞, ∞+∞=0.
Tom is actually going to do his lit project on Proofs and Refutations, which, apparently, consists mostly of faulty proofs that V-E+F=2.
-Sniffnoy
[3]Not that it would actually fool anyone, except possibly Billy.
--
"Office supplies are necessary for LIFE! They separate us from
single-celled protozoa! With brightly colored plastic index tabs!"
-Cecilia, Nukees
