Re: trouble with complex numbers

>>>>> Christian Heimes <> (CH) wrote:

>CH> You can write your own phase() function. This function is mostly correct
>CH> unless either the real and/or the imag part is NaN or INF.

>CH> from math import atan2

>CH> def phase(z):
>CH> z += 1j # convert int, long, float to complex

That should be z += 0j

>CH> return atan2(z.imag, z.real)

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Piet van Oostrum <>
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Piet van Oostrum

Piet van Oostrum <p...@cs.uu.nl> wrote:
> That should be z += 0j

Pardon my ignorance, but could anyone explain the rationale behind
using 'j' to indicate the imaginary number (as opposed to the more
intuitive 'i')?

(Not that I've had much call to use complex numbers but I'm
curious....)

alex23

On Aug 6, 1:18*am, Scott David Daniels <Scott.Dani...@Acm.Org> wrote:
> I think it explained in the complex math area, but basically EE types
> use j, math types use i for exactly the same thing. *Since i is so
> frequently and index in CS, and there is another strong convention,
> why not let the EE types win?

That 'i' tends to be used as index did occur to me, I just wasn't
aware of what conventions were used in other contexts.

Thanks, Scott, much appreciated.

alex23