General > General Technical Chat
"Veritasium" (YT) - "The Big Misconception About Electricity" ?
SiliconWizard:
I don't get what the problem is. Complex numbers are just a useful tool. Like most other tools we use. Their usefulness comes from the fact we get a lot more out of them than what defines them in the first place. If you think even the most mundane tool or model of reality we use is in fact more "real" than this, you're pretty deluded.
If you have a problem with complex numbers, you should have a look at quaternions. You can also look at epsilon numbers.
I find it interesting that some people would have no problem discussing hairy physics and convoluted quantum mechanics, yet find complex numbers "odd". :popcorn:
Seriously, how abstract is math compared to modern theoretical physics? The latter is actually pure maths for the most part.
And as bsfeechannel noted, there is no engineering without math anyway.
bsfeechannel:
We have two cats, Samson and Monica. Samson is larger and stronger, so anytime I gave them a treat, Samson would overcome Monica and eat all of them. So I started tossing one treat at some 3 or 4 meters away, and while Samson was distracted chasing it, I gave another to Monica.
I did this for quite a while, until one day Samson was a bit sleepy and didn't want to leave his favorite spot on the couch. So I gave one treat to Monica, but I noticed that she didn't eat it. When I gave her a second one, she then ate it. She had learned how to count to 2! She then proceeded to eat the first treat in front of her.
So it was not about Samson anymore. She learned that if she waited for a second treat, she would get it 100%. Of course, from my human brain perspective, her modelling is incomplete, since she could have eaten the first treat right away as Samson wasn't around.
But it is amazing to notice that she replaced the physical object with an abstraction. Forget about disputing with Samson. That's too costly. Wait for the second treat. What is the physical meaning of the number 2 for her? She never told me.
And that's exactly how math works for engineering. Are you going to solve an AC circuit using sines and cosines? Or by trial and error? Knock yourself out. But if you use phasors, you'll get there effortlessly and in the end you get a treat. Any cat knows that.
SiliconWizard:
That's a fun, but telling parallel.
Yes we use abstractions all the time to get anything done. And even the simplest organisms do that in some way.
Actually, abstractions do not complexify things - they simplify them. If we had to consider every little detail of anything we do when doing it (so, zero abstraction), we would just die before having finished a single task. For as far as I currently know, the total levels of details of "reality" might be infinite, so anything happening in the universe is actually an abstraction in that sense.
PlainName:
--- Quote ---But it is amazing to notice that she replaced the physical object with an abstraction.
--- End quote ---
What is the abstraction? I don't think it's really much difference to learning not to grab a bare wire, or that rancid food makes you puke.
penfold:
--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on March 26, 2022, 06:47:13 pm ---[...]
And that's exactly how math works for engineering. Are you going to solve an AC circuit using sines and cosines? Or by trial and error? Knock yourself out. But if you use phasors, you'll get there effortlessly and in the end you get a treat. Any cat knows that.
--- End quote ---
Has your cat found a suitable method of employing phasors in non-linear circuits yet?
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