Sunday, February 3, 2019

exponentiation - Taking the square root of an imaginary number



We know that when we take the square root of a negative real number, it's realness "splits open" and an "imaginary" dimension is introduced (characterized by the presence of iota).



The question is, what would happen if take square root of a positive imaginary number? Will the dimension split up again, or will it stay in level-1 imaginary dimension?



Answer



Maybe you want to solve $z^2=i$. It is easy to verify that $z=\pm\frac{\sqrt2}{2}(1+i)$ satisfy the equation. Generally, every polynomial with complex coefficient has a root in $\mathbb C$, or, equivalently, complex field has no algebraic field extension.


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