The next piece in this set tour is a hybrid. It mixes properties of the last two sets. And I’ll own up now that while it’s a set that gets used a lot, it’s one that gets used a lot in just some corners of mathematics. It’s got a bit of that “Internet fame”. In particular circles it’s well-known; venture outside those circles even a little, and it’s not. But it leads us into other, useful places.
Cn
C here is the set of complex-valued numbers. We may have feared them once, but now they’re friends, or at least something we can work peacefully with. n here is some counting number, just as it is with Rn. n could be one or two or forty or a hundred billion. It’ll be whatever fits the problem we’re doing, if we need to pin down its value at all.
The reference to Rn, another friend, probably tipped you off to the rest. The items in Cn are n-tuples, ordered sets of some number n of numbers. Each of those numbers is itself a complex-valued number, something from C. Cn gets typeset in bold, and often with that extra vertical stroke on the left side of the C arc. It’s handwritten that way, too.
As with Rn we can add together things in Cn. Suppose that we are in C2 so that I don’t have to type too much. Suppose the first number is (2 + i, -3 – 3*i) and the second number is (6 – 2*i, 2 + 9*i). There could be fractions or irrational numbers in the real and imaginary components, but I don’t want to type that much. The work is the same. Anyway, the sum will be another number in Cn. The first term in that sum will be the sum of the first term in the first number, 2 + i, and the first term in the second number, 6 – 2*i. That in turn will be the sum of the real and of the imaginary components, so, 2 + 6 + i – 2*i, or 8 – i all told. The second term of the sum will be the second term of the first number, -3 – 3*i, and the second term of the second number, 2 + 9*i, which will be -3 – 3*i + 2 + 9*i or, all told, -1 + 6*i. The sum is the n-tuple (8 – i, -1 + 6*i).
And also as with Rn there really isn’t multiplying of one term of Cn by another. Generally, we can’t do this in any useful way. We can multiply something in Cn by a scalar, a single real — or, why not, complex-valued — number, though.
So let’s start out with (8 – i, -1 + 6*i), a number in C2. And then pick a scalar, say, 2 + 2*i. It doesn’t have to be complex-valued, but, why not? The product of this scalar and this term will be another number in C2. Its first term will the scalar, 2 + 2*i, multiplied by the first term in it, 8 – i. That’s (2 + 2*i) * (8 – i), or 2*8 – 2*i + 16*i – 2*i*i, or 2*8 – 2*i + 16*i + 2, or 18 + 14*i. And then its second term will be the scalar 2 + 2*i multiplied by the second term, -1 + 6*i. That’s (2 + 2*i)*(-1 + 6*i), or 2*(-1) + 2*6*i -2*i + 2*6*i*i. And that’s -2 + 12*i – 2*i -12, or -14 + 10*i. So the product is (18 + 14*i, -14 + 10*i).
So as with Rn, Cn creates a “vector space”. These spaces are useful in complex analysis. They’re also useful in the study of affine geometry, a corner of geometry that I’m sad to admit falls outside what I studied. I have tried reading up on them on my own, and I run aground each time. I understand the basic principles but never quite grasp why they are interesting. That’s my own failing, of course, and I’d be glad for a pointer that explained in ways I understood why they’re so neat.
I do understand some of what’s neat about them: affine geometry tells us what we can know about shapes without using the concept of “distance”. When you discover that we can know anything about shapes without the idea of “distance” your imagination should be fired. Mine is, too. I just haven’t followed from that to feel comfortable with the terminology and symbols of the field.
You could, if you like, think of Cn as being a specially-delineated version of R2*n. This is just as you can see a complex number as an ordered pair of real numbers. But sometimes information is usefully thought of as a single, complex-valued number. And there is a value in introducing the idea of ordered sets of things that are not real numbers. We will see the concept again.
Also, the heck did I write an 800-word essay about the family of sets of complex-valued n-tuples and have Hemingway Editor judge it to be at the “Grade 3” reading level? I rarely get down to “Grade 6” when I do a Reading the Comics post explaining how Andertoons did a snarky-word-problem-answers panel. That’s got to be a temporary glitch.
nebusresearch 