Who knows √-1?
The traditional Passover song "Echad - mi yodeya" implies a possible presupposition that there is a Jewish significance to be found for each number.
What significant Judaism facts are there about the square root of -1?
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1I'm excited by this... can we start doing irrational and transcendental numbers? e mi yodeya?– Isaac KotlickyCommented Mar 11, 2016 at 1:32
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1FYI It's "Who knows me" not "i"– SAHCommented Mar 11, 2016 at 4:49
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khanacademy.org/math/math-for-fun-and-glory/vi-hart/… mi yodeya?– SAHCommented Sep 27, 2017 at 23:10
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5 Answers
√-1 is an extremely important number in Judaism. Of course, everybody knows √-1 is equal to i. We also know that i is equivalent to Hashem, as the posuk says (actually many p'sukim say so)
אני ה'
I am Hashem.
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2And this is where my habit of not capitalizing "i"s is useful. :) Commented Mar 10, 2016 at 20:55
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4@Scimonster Here it's only capitalized because it's the beginning of the sentence.– DanielCommented Mar 10, 2016 at 20:55
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Well done... I was trying to figure out some way to deal with "root" and "minus," but this takes the cake... Commented Mar 10, 2016 at 20:59
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3@DoubleAA I did think of that difficulty. I don't have a definite answer. My best understanding is that the transitive property doesn't apply to God.– DanielCommented Mar 16, 2016 at 14:19
Who knows √-1?
I.
√-1 is very important in Judaism because it teaches that what appears to be "imaginary" actually exists and has a major influence on the universe. The minim who pretend that Olam haruach is "imaginary" because it is not immediately visible are defeated because they are confronted with this fact. Another point is that the √-1 shows that the universe cannot exist without the "imaginary" component even though we try to ignore it.
answered Mar 10, 2016 at 21:04
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As we all know, √-1 is equal to j. This is the J strand of the Bible, according to the Documentary Hypothesis. It is particularly important that we remember that j = √-1, because we must always keep in mind that the Documentary Hypothesis is imaginary.
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The last line is the kicker :)– user9907Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 1:32
√-1 is the imaginary unit, used as the basis for all imaginary numbers, which are used to count imaginary things. Generally speaking, imaginary things are a theoretical concept, invented by mathematicians so that they can plead that the imaginary numbers that they also invented have a practical application. However, there is one real-world killer application of imaginary numbers - counting sheep when one is plagued with insomnia. As the sheep in question are imaginary (unless one is a shepherd, I guess), they require imaginary numbers for the counting, so the only way the cure is effective is if √-1 is employed.
Unfortunately for Achashveirosh but fortunately1 for us, when he suffered from insomnia, imaginary numbers were yet to be invented for centuries, so the sheep-counting therapy was unavailable, and he had to resort to reading logs, which, again fortunately1, again had been invented, if rudimentarily.
1. By which I mean "thanks to God's intervention in the history of mathematics." There; I said it.
answered Mar 10, 2016 at 22:14
