Imaginary Numbers Breakthrough to Reality

Calling the square root of minus one “imaginary” is misleading and confusing. But this is still being taught in most high school and college math classes. There is a mostly overlooked major breakthrough in mathematics from the 1870's that allows us to see the “real” geometry of the square root of minus one without using the "imaginary" axis nor the "imaginary" plane.

Here is a short 10 minute video introduction to a better way of understanding and appreciating the importance and reality of the square root of minus one. To keep this accessible to young college students and even top high school students, the math involved in this video is just simple pre-trigonometry mathematics. I hope you enjoy this short video, find it easy to follow and that it helps you to appreciate why the square root of minus one is so important in describing the "real" world.

Please let me know if you would like me to post more videos on steemit that get into and make use of this breakthrough and other interesting breakthroughs in science. Part 2 is almost ready to post, it's just a matter of me setting aside some more time without distractions to focus on the clarity of the explanations of some of the concepts. In part 2, using some basic trigonometry, we can begin to see what this breakthrough is.