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anonymarsyesterday at 9:44 PM1 replyview on HN

Given that you have a Ph.D. in mathematics, this might seem hopelessly elementary, but who knows--I found it intuitive and insightful: https://betterexplained.com/articles/a-visual-intuitive-guid...

Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18310788


Replies

CamperBob2today at 1:46 AM

I've always been satisfied with the explanation "Just as you need signed numbers for translation, you need complex numbers to express rotation." Nobody asks if negative numbers are really a natural thing, so it doesn't make sense to ask if complex ones are, IMO.