Re: visualization of f: C -> C

From: Larry Hammick (larryhammick_at_OMIT-MEtelus.net)
Date: 03/27/05 

Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 12:05:14 GMT

"Lee Rudolph"
> Robin Chapman writes:
>
> >Sukjah Roh wrote:
> >
> >> Hi
> >>
> >> I am sorry that I am not good at english.
> >> I am wondering how most mathematicians and some famous mathematicians
> >> visualize functions from C to C. (where C is the complex plane.)
> >
> >Most mathematicians don't "visualize" complex functions.
>
> There was a (previous-to-computers) fad for it once before, I think
> over 100 years ago, using yet another means not listed by Sukjah Roh:
> plaster casts representing a graph (in C \times R) of the real part,
> or the modulus. Princeton used to have a fairly good collection of
> these. I'm not aware of anyone ever reporting that they did him (I
> use the pronoun advisedly) any good, but they were nice to have around,
> like the oak paneling and leather upholstery and wooden bowls full
> of go pieces.
I wonder if those casts had something to do with the use of conformal
mapping in the design of ships' hulls, which was an extremely important
advance in engineering around 1900, preventing shipwrecks by the thousand.
LH