If you're intelligent, you will never want to sleep next to me.

[Pheebs]

Last night prior to going to sleep..

Me: *big sigh* *sits up, searches for a bit of paper and pen and then starts scribbling things down on it*
Picky: "What are you doing?"
Me: "Emptying my brain."
Picky: "riiiight..."
Me: "...It's in overload at the moment and if I write down everything I'm thinking or things that are bothering me I can go sleep much quicker."
Picky: "Oh right. What you writing?"
Me: "Exams, accounting and other things that are annoying me" *continues writing for a couple of seconds and then pauses....* "that should do it. Clear mind." *turns off light*

*pause of silence*

Picky: "That didn't take long to empty your brain did it."
Me: *turns back on light* *picks up pen and paper and scribbles on it*
Picky: "What you writing now?"
Me: "Piiiickkeeers"
Picky: "Hahaha!"
Me: *turns out light*


A few minutes later we had been talking about something or other and somehow got on to the topic of imaginary numbers...

Picky: "You just have to accept there's such a thing as an imaginary number"
Me: "Eh?!"
Picky: "It's hard to explain"
Me: "Well try to as currently that sounds daft"
Picky: "In mathematics and Physics we sometimes use the imaginary number to figure things out.."
Me: "How'ds that work?! What is the imaginary number?!"
Picky: "It's... an imaginary number"
Me: "Well where does it fit when counting? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Imaginary Number, 6, 7, 8... what's it called?! I don't get it! It's got to have a name?!"
Picky: "It doesn't go anywhere - it's imaginary!"
Me: "That's silly! Doesn't it have a name then!? Like one or two?!"
Picky: "No, it's an imaginary number... well actually it's called " i " ."
Me: *sits up and looks at Picky* "I hate to break this to you... but that's actually a letter. Not a number. It comes from something called the Alphaaaaaabet!"
Picky: "Oh shush now. Go to sleep. Stupid Girl." *turns over to go to sleep*

*pause*

Me: "Ok ok ok. So. Give me an example of an imaginary number. What is it type thing?"
Picky: *sighs - turns back over* "The definition of an imaginary number is the square root of minus 1"
Me: *silence... clogs ticking in brain* "...... what's that work out to be?"
Picky: "It's " i " "
Me: "But that's a letter! What's the number?!"
Picky: "It's just "i"! It's an imaginary number!" *he then garbled on about something like if the square root of x was -1 and you then put into another equation it would end up with a different answer to what it should be because you'd be taking away a number and not adding it... but it would be the same number... or something*
Me: "Right... okay... so like. In physical terms, it would be like me making a sandwich. If I put the bread first and then two slices of ham and another slice of bread it's the right way round and is a sarnie... but if it's ham first and then two slices of bread and then ham again it's the same ingredients but it's not a sandwich. It's an imaginary sandwich. Yeh?"
Picky: "Night Clare"
Me: "Stupid boy. What do you use it for anyway? What does it figure out?!"
Picky: "It's used in Physics!"
Me: "I don't get it. Where'd you use it in physics? Like... where would you use it in calculating the acceleration of a car?! You know what I mean!"
Picky: "It's used in string theory and things"

*silence. Picky turns over and gets comfortable...*
















Me: "So..... What's string theory about?"
Picky: "GO TO SLEEP!"
Me: *turns back on the light, picks up pad, starts scribbling* "Stooppiiid... imaaaginaaary... nuumbers and biiits ooof rooope or string or something." *turns out light*

[Davey_Pitch]

ROFL! I'd love to live with you two for the day, I don't think I'd ever stop laughing

[Stan_Lite]

I don't profess to know too much about string theory but I do know that it's not really something one could explain in bed, on the verge of sleep

This imaginary number intrigues me though, I must look into this.

[Belmit]

From what I remember, it's called an imaginary number because you can prove mathematically that it exists, but you can't actually write it down. For example, technically there is no square root of -1 because you can't multiply the same number by itself to get -1, ever. This number doesn't exist. However, you can have the square root of -1 in an equation... so really it does exist. But the result is imaginary.

But just because it's imaginary doesn't mean you can discount it, mathematically speaking.

If you'd asked me that while I was trying to sleep though, the more likely response would have been 'Graaaaaaahmaginary'.

[Feek]

Why.
Are you talking about imaginary numbers?

In bed?

[Haly]

[Pheebs]

I still don't get why and where you'd use it in an equation

I'm very much a person who needs to know how what when and why something works and where it's needed before it clicks!


Feek - I just talk where ever I may be about whatever! I thought you would have learned so far after living with me for a weekend

[Rich_L]

I sympathise entirely with your plight Pickers, having spent a good half hour explaining to the missus why relative purchasing power isn't the same as a currency exchange rate, before going down the 'you don't have to understand it, just accept I'm right on this' route

[Pheebs]

Originally Posted by Rich_L

I sympathise entirely with your plight Pickers, having spent a good half hour explaining to the missus why relative purchasing power isn't the same as a currency exchange rate, before going down the 'you don't have to understand it, just accept I'm right on this' route

Noooooooooooooooooo that response annoys me the most! The whole:

"You just have to accept it's right" type jobbo!

He tried explaining time travel and things once in bed (lol we do have the weirdest of bed time conversations) and he ended that with the "You just have to accept it" and I was like "But no! Where's the testing to prove it? What's been done? Did they think about inconsistencies? That's crazy!"

[Will]

Originally Posted by Feek

Why.
Are you talking about imaginary numbers?

In bed?

I was hoping that would be our conversation on Saturday!