Last night I helped a friend, who is a senior in high school, with her pre-calculus homework. It was agonizingly painful and I really was only able to figure out one problem that had some inversely related blah blah blah, this is why I am majoring in History. I thought I could help because I did in fact go to a Math and Science High School, but apparently if you don’t do math for four years it becomes this terrible monster that is ferocious and difficult to tackle and defeat. Sometimes impossible.
Tonight I came face to face with the Math Monster:
And the math monster has an imaginary friend. Last time I helped my friend with her homework the problem had imaginary numbers. I freaked for a moment (or an hour) because I forgot those things actually existed, or do they? It still confuses me.
This is the Math Monster's imaginary friend:
Friend: “Will I ever have to know this in real life?” (Referring to imaginary numbers.)
Me: “What do you want to major in?”
Friend: “Family and Consumer Sciences”
Me: “Um, no, never.”
I was curious, though, what is the purpose of imaginary numbers? I called my dad who is an engineer and has actually checked out a Calculus book from the library before.
Dad: “You know that squealing noise a sound system makes. That’s an imaginary number”
Translation: Just another reason to hate math.
Definition of imaginary: Existing only in the imagination
Definition of imagination: The formation of something that is not perceived as real.
I have come to the conclusion that the imaginary number is some diabolical creation of the Math Monster's mind and the terrible, ear shattering cry we are hearing is the Math Monster itself and it’s hiding behind the disguise of its "imaginary" friend.
So the next time you hear that squeal, just remember the Math Monster is lurking nearby waiting to suck the fun out of the room.
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