[Haskell-cafe] Num instances for 2-dimensional types
miguelimo38 at yandex.ru
Mon Oct 5 10:55:11 EDT 2009
No, they aren't. They are polynomials in one variable "i" modulo i^2+1.
Seriously, if you say complex numbers are just pairs of real numbers -
you have to agree that double numbers (sorry, don't know the exact
English term), defined by
(a,b)+(c,d) = (a+c,b+d)
(a,b)(c,d) = (ac, ad+bc)
are just pairs of real numbers too. After that, you have two choices: a)
admit that complex numbers and double numbers are the same - and most
mathematicians would agree they aren't - or b) admit that the relation
"be the same" is not transitive - which is simply bizarre.
Lennart Augustsson wrote:
> But complex numbers are just pairs of numbers. So pairs of numbers
> can obviously be numbers then.
> On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 4:40 PM, Miguel Mitrofanov <miguelimo38 at yandex.ru> wrote:
>> Lennart Augustsson wrote:
>>> And what is a number?
>> Can't say. You know, it's kinda funny to ask a biologist what it means to be
>>> Are complex numbers numbers?
>> Beyond any reasonable doubt. Just like you and me are most certainly alive.
> Haskell-Cafe mailing list
> Haskell-Cafe at haskell.org
More information about the Haskell-Cafe