On 1/24/2014 8:50 AM, Edgar L. Owen wrote:
As for the question of quantum theory's irreality, perhaps we have just to learn to love /i/. After all, it is not just quantum mechanics where its influence is felt. Complex numbers are also increasingly vital in describing optical waveguides, transitions between different states of matter and many other aspects of classical physics. "People always thought of complex numbers just as a tool, but increasingly we are seeing that there is something more to them," says mathematician Dorje Brody <http://www.brunel.ac.uk/siscm/mathematical-sciences/people-in-maths/academic-staff/professor-dorje-brody> of Brunel University in London.
The trouble is that people started out taking mathematics too seriously, and even physics too seriously. i is no more mysterious and "imaginary" than 0! or 2. They are *all* tools - but don't say not "just" tools, because there isn't any better handle on our shared reality.
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