Numbers Real and Imaginary

With i and its variants in our new system, numbers are now a mixture of the real and the imaginary. A complex number takes the form:

where a and b are any rational value. Complex numbers may be entirely real, such as 3 + 0i:

Which is just the number 3.

Or a complex number might be entirely imaginary, as in 0 + 2i:

Which is just 2i. Finally, a number like may be partly real and partly imaginary, such as:

While this number could be represented by a point on each line, a more effective — and conceptually far-reaching — choice is to realize that this kind of value lies on neither number line, but between them.

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