• laserm@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    4 days ago

    Why would a mathematician use j for imaginary numbers and why would engineer be mad at them?

    • CyanideShotInjection@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      4 days ago

      The only thing I can think of is that the OP studied electrical engineering at some point. But it’s a 4chan story so probably fake anyway.

    • ThePuy@feddit.nlEnglish
      3·
      4 days ago

      Mathematicians are taught to be elastic with notation, because they tend to be taught many different interpretations of the same theory.

      On the other hand engineers use more strict and consistent notation, their classes have a more practical approach.

      Using the same notation makes it faster to read and apply math, a more agile approach helps with learning new theories and approaches and with being creative.

  • iAvicenna@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    5 days ago

    operative?

    Also mathematicians use i for imaginary, engineers use j. The story does not add up. I have never seen a single mathematician use j for imaginary.

    • Unlearned9545@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      4 days ago

      Engineer here: mostly use i, but have seen j used plenty. First time I saw j used was by a maths professor.

      • iAvicenna@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        4 days ago

        Interesting I never saw j from a maths person. Friends (from a decade ago!) in electronics eng dep said they use j because i was reserved for current. perhaps the latter depends on the department.

    • sartalon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      5 days ago

      As an EE, I used both. Def not a mathematician though. Fuck that, I just plug variables into programs now.

    • Neverclear@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      5·
      4 days ago

      hate fuck:

      An act of aggressive sex with someone as if they had no respect for the person as an equal human being, regardless if they actually do, or not. Hate fucking usually entails aggressive, sometimes violent, degrading, and humiliating sexual acts and behaviors perpetrated by an aggressive party onto a submissive, solely in the interest of the aggressor’s own pleasure and amusement, and without regard for the submissive party’s enjoyment or well being.

      Unlike rape, hate fucking is a form of consensual sex where the submissive party has agreed (for whatever reason) to accept the treatment and behavior of the aggressor.

      Though unlike proper BDSM, the submissive party has not previously discussed boundaries, likes or dislikes, and doesn’t necessarily enjoy all, or even any of the treatment they receive.

      https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hate+fuck

  • jsomae@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    My initial thought was that it’s surprising that the engineer is using i whereas the mathematician is using j. But I know some engineers who are hardcore in favour of i. No mathematicians who prefer j though. So if such an engineer were dating a mathematician of all people who used j, I could see that being ♠ .

  • Phoenix3875@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    5 days ago

    I think rather d/dx is the operator. You apply it to an expression to bind free occurrences of x in that expression. For example, dx²/dx is best understood as d/dx (x²). The notation would be clear if you implement calculus in a program.

    • bitcrafter@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      4 days ago

      Imagining your death. :P

      But seriously, it’s perfectly sensible when remember that i is just the mathematical representation of “left turn”, just like -1 is the mathematical representation of “go backwards”-- and as we know, two left turns sends you backwards. So think about this triangle in the following way:

      Imagine you are a snail, starting at the origin. Now imagine that you walk forward 1 step along the horizontal line. Then you turn 90° to the left to start walking along the vertical line, but then, because you need to walk i steps along this line you take another 90° turn to the left, which means that you are now walking backwards and you end up back at the origin. How far away from the origin are you? Zero steps.