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The Impossible Number

Curious Cases

CHAPTER

How to Solve Wave Equations Using Complex Numbers

Early in the 20th century, people are puzzling about how to model really small stuff. Erwin Schrodinger is working on shoe-horning quantum mechanics into a familiar form. He manages to write down Schrodinger's equation, which looks like a wave equation. But it doesn't just use complex numbers to solve for a wave. It gives you a wave with a complex value, with an imaginary value or its amplitude.

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