331 views

### Why don't we define division by zero as an arbritrary constant such as $j$? [duplicate]

Why don't we define $\frac 10$ as $j$ , $\frac 20$ as $2j$ , and so on? I know that by following the rules of math this eventually leads to $1=2$ , but we could make an exception and say that $j$ is ...
2k views

### Could 1/0 be an imaginary number? [duplicate]

There is no way to find the square root of a negative number. It just doesn't work. So the answer to the impossible question, "What number squared equals a negative number?" is just said to be $i$, an ...
207 views

### Could we “invent” a number $h$ such that $h = {{1}\over{0}}$, similarly to the way we “invented” $i=\sqrt{-1}$? [duplicate]

$\sqrt{-1}$ was completely undefined in the world before complex numbers. So we came up with $i$. $1\over0$ is completely undefined in today's world; is there a reason we haven't come up with a new ...
71 views

### If $i^2=-1$, at one point undefined, then why not define $\frac00$? [duplicate]

Would this even assist math in the way that $i$ did? Or is this just outright pointless and/or too exclusive to call for a definition?
71 views

### Is there a way of defining an “imaginary” number which is not i? [duplicate]

Assuming i does not necessarily have any other property but that it can represent (a, b) as a number in the form a + bi, how else could we define i? For instance, would it be appropriate to define a ...
60 views

### Why is there only one type of imaginary number? [duplicate]

We've defined the square root of -1 as an imaginary number i (or j, if you're a physicist). Is there any reason why we can't/haven't made other systems of imaginary numbers for other "impossible" ...
5k views

### A new imaginary number? $x^c = -x$

Being young, I don't have much experience with imaginary numbers outside of the basic usages of $i$. As I was sitting in my high school math class doing logs, I had an idea of something that would ...
6k views

### What allows us to use imaginary numbers?

What axiom or definition says that mathematical operations like +, -, /, and * operate on imaginary numbers? In the beginning, when there were just reals, these operations were defined for them. Then,...
6k views

### Why should quaternions exist?

Why do quaternions exist? I want to believe they exist, but all I can think of are reasons they should not exist. These are my reasons. The quaternions are defined by the following equation: i^2 =...