Sunday Night With John: Imaginary Numbers and Solutions

After a certain point I stopped appreciating math. When my math teacher started introducing letters and a lower case i and stated it was an imaginary number, I threw my hands up and thought, I’m over this. Imaginary numbers, what I’m learning doesn’t even exist. Others have commented that they can’t understand my love for philosophical questions with numerous answers.  In a weird way these two subjects are related.

There is a point in math where math problems turn from finding the answer to finding solutions, and the tougher the philosophical inquiries the more detailed solutions satisfy the inquiry. It’s the same way in life; we are looking for simple answers to problems that have an effect on many people in our social network and need detailed thought out solutions.

What I failed to appreciate about those higher-level math problems was how using the math you learned in previous lessons over and over again solved them. It’s funny how often I checked my work and realized I came to the wrong solution because I forgot to carry a number, dropped a negative sign and number switched from negative to positive throwing off my solution. What I did appreciate about difficult inquiries from the philosophical professors was how every simple answer was challenged forcing me to look inward for more detailed points, or re-read the text to pull out evidence needed to further prove my conclusion. That quest constantly sent me on a search to answer the challenge my professor laid down as thoroughly as possible, if we could only do this for problems we face in life.

The solutions to what troubles our hearts, our minds, our bodies and our spirits are always in the details. An answer gets us to the next problem we will face, but finding a solution prepares us to not allow the next problem we encounter to stop us in our tracks, even if it includes imaginary numbers.