Re: Sign conventions

From: Kevin (kevin_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 03/03/05 

Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2005 01:26:43 +0000

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 18:14:14 -0700
"Luc The Perverse" <sll_NOSPAM_zm@remove.cc.usu.edu> wrote:

> <stephen@nomail.com> wrote in message
> news:cvb16c$20jb$3@msunews.cl.msu.edu...
> > In sci.math Luc The Perverse
> > <sll_NOSPAM_zm@remove.cc.usu.edu> wrote::
> > <matt271829-news@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message:
> > news:1108844262.006262.325240@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com..
> > .:> I am not disagreeing with you... it does, at least for
> > positive x. (The:> situation for negative x is less clear to
> > me, but since we can't:> algebraically distinguish between i
> > and -i anyway maybe this is a:> non-question!)
> >
> >
> > : i is the positive square root of -1 by definition.
> > Problem solved.
> >
> > Is i > 0 ? :)
>
> I admit you have me bothered.
>
> I will say that |i|>0 however. There is a nagging part of me
> which says that both -i and i are negative.
>
> Is the problem supposed to be common knoweldge. I never
> remember it discussed in school.

I learned that the complex numbers aren't ordered (or well
ordered, I don't know the difference actually), but anyway, I
thought I learned that you can't order complex numbers, so i > 0
is nonsense.