@FreyaManibrandr trigonometry is particularly bad with this
everything makes more sense if you use the complex exponential form of the trigonometric functions but for some reason people are terrified of the idea of showing kids imaginary numbers
-F
@FreyaManibrandr "imaginary" was actually a name that was applied because they were seen as a cheating tool when first introduced, and for some reason it just stuck
-F
@Felthry Yeah, kinda goes to show that even the people who discovered it didn't know just how important it was back then.
@Felthry I think a big mistake is calling it imaginary rather than complex numbers, because complex numbers are anything but imaginary.
When people talk about imaginary numbers, they think of a cheating tool they use sparingly and with shame if they have to. When complex numbers is just as important, if not more than simple numbers.