Solving the Cubic Equation and the Discovery of Complex Numbers

Incidentally, two of the ancient “unsolvable problems in geometry”, doubling the cube and trisecting an angle, are equivalent to solving a cubic equation.

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Ok. I learned something new today. At this late date in my life, I hope I might yet grasp the Schrödinger wave equation. /:

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I just started watching this. Yoiks, and away!

Interesting history lesson. And I appreciate the simple linkage between algebra and geometry.

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But the generalization of imaginary numbers to quaterions didn’t work out quite as well for geometry – leading to some confusion in physics following Maxwell’s equations, resulting in The Vector Algebra War which now seems to be won by a geometric approach to Clifford algebras called “Geometric Algebra”.

Here’s a video overview of The Vector Algebra War:

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