Content about “
complex number

Collection

Teacher package: Complex numbers

Complex numbers — what are they, how do they work and what do they have to do with computer-generated movies, fractals and chaos? This teacher package brings together all Plus articles on complex numbers and gives some handy links to related problems on our sister site NRICH.
Article

A tale of two curricula: Euler's algebra text book

In the fourth and final part of our series celebrating 300 years since Leonhard Euler's birth, we let Euler speak for himself. Chris Sangwin takes us through excerpts of Euler's algebra text book and finds that modern teaching could have something to learn from Euler's methods.
Article

Maths goes to the movies

Computer generated movies and electronic games: Joan Lasenby tells us about the mathematics and engineering behind them.
Article

Unveiling the Mandelbrot set

You've probably seen pictures of the famed Mandelbrot set and its mysterious cousins, the Julia sets. In this article Robert L. Devaney explores the maths behind these beauties and shows that they're loaded with mathematical meaning.
Article

Ubiquitous octonions

Mathematician and physicist John Baez declares himself fascinated by exceptions in mathematics. This interest has led him to study the octonions, and, through them, to find out more about the origins of complex numbers and quaternions. In the second of two articles, he talks about the characters of the different dimensions, beauty and utility in mathematics, and just why he likes dimension 8 so much.
Article
quaternions

Curious quaternions

Mathematician and physicist John Baez declares himself fascinated by exceptions in mathematics. This interest has led him to study the octonions, and, through them, to find out more about the origins of complex numbers and quaternions. In the first of two articles, he talks about connections between algebra and geometry, and the importance of lateral thinking in mathematics.

Article

Roger Penrose: A Knight on the tiles

Will we ever be able to make computers that think and feel? If not, why not? And what has all this got to do with tiles? Plus talks to Sir Roger Penrose about all this and more.