12 thoughts on “Powers!

  1. Thanks, Mike!

    While it’s not exactly a Homer doh headslap moment, the end result with the trig functions isn’t terribly surprising to me. Quite the opposite in retrospect, given that we’re playing on the complex plane.

    I could only give it a quick read tonight given family interruptions but I’ll work through it in more detail tomorrow.

    And again, I really appreciate you humoring my curiosity.Report

  2. If that’s too much to try to see in your mind’s eye (and the best I ever do is to frustratingly get almost there)…

    I’m imagining f(z, t) = e^(z + it) as a parametric describing a circularly polarized photon traveling through an exponentially expanding universe.

    I think…Report

  3. Just a reminder, for those who gave up on Math in high school, all the exclamation marks in this:

    cos(x) = 1 – x2/2! + x4/4! – x6/6! + …
    sin(x) = x – x3/3! + x5/5! – x7/7! + …

    is the factorial, not Mike getting really excited about Math. The factorial works like this:

    4! = 1*2*3*4 = 24
    6! = 1*2*3*4*5*6 = 720Report

  4. I do not know what is worse.

    That i have taken the time to read it all, or that i actually liked the article.

    Damned engeenering years!Report

  5. These series are incredibly powerful. (Pun semi-intended.) In his classic book, Real and Complex Analysis, using nothing but their power series, Walter Rudin derives every imaginable property of the exponential, sine and cosine functions (both the real and complex versions) in three pages of text.Report

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