>>See, I knew we should have a math section (s). Suppose you have a quadratic equation in x, and using the previous formula, you get the solution of x = 6 +/- sqrt(-5). The imaginary part is the sqrt(-5), often expressed as sqrt(5)i. 6 is the 'real' part. 'Imaginary' is sort of a term conjured up to indicate it can't be expressed on the real x/y plane...
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>Well, I always thought there's an isomorphism between the complex set and the real x/y plane... Which obviously means that any complex number has its "place" in this plane.
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I checked this out in my math library last night (I'm a bit rusty on some theory)...the only isomorphism I find between C & R is for the trivial case in C where we have the ordered pair (a,0) in a+bi. A general isomorphism cannot exist since R is an ordered field but C is not...(I'm sure this info will be useful to all UT folks!) :~)