Imaginary Numbers May Be Essential for Describing Reality A new thought experiment indicates that quantum mechanics doesn’t work without strange numbers that turn negative when squared.

Imaginary numbers, also called complex numbers, are used in real-life applications, such as electricity, as well as quadratic equations.

Amid the chaos of revolutionary France, one man’s mathematical obsession gave way to a calculation that now underpins much of ...

Imaginary numbers might seem like unicorns and goblins — interesting but irrelevant to reality. But for describing matter at its roots, imaginary numbers turn out to be essential. They seem to ...

However, the imaginary number i openly appears next to the wave function in the Schrödinger equation.

There has long been a mystery when calculating how an incoming light wave scatters off an object and becomes a modified, ...

The Imaginary Number Simon Singh's Numbers Five Numbers The imaginary number takes mathematics to another dimension. If the square root of +1 is both +1 and -1, then what is the square root of -1?