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Seminar on the History of Mathematics
January 4, 2018 18:00, St. Peterburg


On the history of complex numbers and its geometric representations

G. I. Sinkevich



Abstract: 472 years have passed since the appearance of imaginary numbers in the work of Girolamo Cardano, 445 years from the first use of complex numbers by Raphael Bombelli and 240 years since the appearance of the symbol of the imaginary number “i” introduced by Leonard Euler. We shall consider the history of the development of the concept of complex numbers from their emergence to the creation of a vector calculus. We pay special attention to the development of their geometric interpretation, which enriched mathematics, mechanics, physics and technology.


© Steklov Math. Inst. of RAS, 2024