The History of Imaginary Numbers The origin of imaginary numbers dates back to the ancient Greeks. Although, atone time they believed that all numbers were rational numbers. Through the yearsmathematicians would not accept the fact that equations could have solutions that wereless than zero. Those type of numbers are what we refer to today as negative numbers.Unfortunately, because of the lack of knowledge of negative numbers, many equationsover the centuries seemed to be unsolvable. So, from the new found knowledge ofnegative numbers mathematicians discovered imaginary numbers.Around 1545 Girolamo Cardano, an Italian mathematician, solved what seemed tobe an impossible cubic equation. By solving this equation he attributed to the acceptanceof imaginary numbers. Imaginary numbers were known by the early mathematicians insuch forms as the simple equation used today x = +/- ^-1. However, they were seen asuseless. By 1572 Rafael Bombeli showed in his dissertation Algebra, that roots ofnegative numbers can be utilized.To solve for certain types of equations such as, the square root of a negativenumber ( ^-5), a new number needed to be invented. They called this number i. Thesquare of i is -1. These early mathematicians learned that multiplying positive andnegative numbers by i a new set of numbers can be formed. These numbers were thencalled imaginary numbers. They were called this, because mathematicians still wereunsure of the legitimacy. So, for lack of a better word they temporarily called themimaginary. Over the centuries the letter i was still used in equations therefore, the namestuck. The original positive and negative numbers were then aptly named real numbers.What are Imaginary Numbers?An imaginary number is a number that can be shown as a real number times i.Real numbers are all positive numbers, negative numbers and zero. The square of anyimaginary number is a negative number, except for zero. The most accepted use ofimaginary...
