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, outgoing light wave. In particular, the time delay of the transition from one ...

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?