SME 430 - WEEK 4

Negative and Imaginary Numbers

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 ITINERARY
Announcements

Biographies

Timeline

Fibonacci (Revisited)

Break

Seminar

Activities

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 ANNOUNCEMENTS

I accidentally
deleted everyone’s
responses to HW2.

Everyone got 10
points for that
assignment.

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 ANNOUNCEMENTS
(CONT’D)

Converting files
(.docx -> .doc),
(.xlsx -> .xls)...

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BIOGRAPHIES
Brahmagupta, Leonhard Euler, Pythagoras

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TIMELINE

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 MATH HISTORY
TIMELINE

Marinus (~450-~500) Head of The Acadamy, lectured on Pappus

Anthemius (~474-~534) - On Burning Mirrors, focal points of the parabola
Aryabhata I (476-550) - Aryabhatiya, astronomical text including arith., alg., pl. trig. and sph. trig.
Boethius (~480-524) - Arithmetic, source for quadrivium
Eutocius (~480-~540) - Commentaries on Archimedes and Apollonius
Simplicius (~490-~560) - Commentaries on Aristotle and Euclid
Yativrsabha (~500-~570) - Tiloyapannatti, units for time and mea
Varahamihira (505-587) - Pancasiddhantika, astronom

529A.D. Platos Acadamy Cam

450 A.D. 500 A. D. 550 A.D.

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FIBONACCI (REVISITED)

http://www.maths.surrey.ac.uk/hosted-sites/
R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibnat.html

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 DISCUSSION
(NEGATIVES)
What shifts in people’s conceptions of numbers were
required to accept negative numbers?
One descriptions of negative numbers are numbers that are
“less than nothing”. How would you explain or verify that
negative numbers are “less than nothing”?
What other descriptions for negative numbers can you
think of?
Operations with negative numbers have defined rules
(negative plus negative is negative, negative times negative
is positive, etc.). How can you justify those rules?
Proof of Negative times Negative?

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 DISCUSSION
(IMAGINARY)
What shifts in people’s Order from least to
conceptions of numbers greatest -2, -1+i, 3-i, 4i,
were required to accept √7-3i. Explain your
imaginary numbers? methods.

Where are the roots of

f(x)=x3+5x2+2x-8, and
g(x)=x3-3x2+3x-9?

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TAKE A BREAK
Be back in 10 minutes...

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NUMBER SETS

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 ACTIVITY

Complete the worksheet in small groups.

Be prepared to come back together to share your

responses.

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 HOMEWORK

Write and submit to the dropbox on ANGEL a journal entry

reflecting on the following prompt:
Consider the following topics: arithmetic, math history, and
education. Write a couple of paragraphs that describes your
understanding of (and how your understanding has
improved in) these three topics and how they intersect with
each other.

Read the following sketches...

12. A Cheerful Fact (The Pythagorean Theorem) - p113-p118
14. On Beauty Bare (Euclid's Plane Geometry) - p125-p130
Discussion Forum

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Discussion on Negatives

• What shifts in people’s conceptions of numbers were required to accept

negative numbers?

Previously, had counted number (thought of numbers) as objects and

measurements. There needed to be a purpose for negative numbers (reasons they
had to exist). Had a new way of referring to negatives (as debts). People had to
conceptualize something less than nothing.

There was confusion about where to put the negatives as compared to their positive
counterparts. People had seen that negatives were coming up as solutions to
equations, but previously they had ignored them (false root/fictitious solutions).

• One descriptions of negative numbers are numbers that are “less than
nothing”. How would you explain or verify that negative numbers are “less
than nothing”?

A problem may exist with using 0 and nothing interchangeably.

o What other descriptions for negative numbers can you think of?

_________________ 0

| |

| |

| |

\______________/

Absolute value -> Distance from zero.

Real world examples – Owing money.

Hot air balloon with negative numbers as sandbags.

Have the number line displayed with both positive and negatives.

• Operations with negative numbers have defined rules (negative plus negative
is negative, negative times negative is positive, etc.). How can you justify
those rules?
o Proof of Negative times Negative?

Negative times Positive = Negative -> Negative *Negative is the opposite of Negative
times Positive, which is Positive.

Bad things happen to good people is a bad thing, but a bad thing happening to bad
people is a good thing. Good things happening to good people is good. Good things
happening to bad people is bad. (Friends of friends/friends of enemies…)
Logic based – Not going to the store -> not going, but not not going to the store is
going.

Using the two negative bars to form a plus sign.

-n * -m = -(-n * m) = -(-nm)= nm
Discussion on Imaginary Numbers

• What shifts in people’s conceptions of numbers were required to accept

imaginary numbers?

People had to understand that imaginary numbers were NOT useless. These were
not impossible solutions. They had to create the conception of imaginary numbers.
This didn’t exist before and actually had to create the conceptions. Had to have an
understanding of negative numbers, as well as an understanding of square roots.

• Where are the roots of f(x)=x3+5x2+2x-8, and g(x)=x3-3x2+3x-9?

Roots of f(x) are -4, -2, 1

Root of g(x) is 3

• Order from least to greatest -2, -1+i, 3-i, 4i, √7-3i. Explain your methods.

Possibly square each number then sum them.

Possibly substitute i for another known number.

SME 430 NEGATIVE NUMBERS 02/02/10

Brief History 1

Although the first set of rules for dealing with negative numbers was stated in the 7th century by the
Indian mathematician Brahmagupta, it is surprising that in 1758 the British mathematician Francis Maseres
was claiming that negative numbers
"... darken the very whole doctrines of the equations and make dark of the things which are in their nature excessively
obvious and simple" .
It was not until the 19th century when British mathematicians like De Morgan, Peacock, and others,
began to investigate the 'laws of arithmetic' in terms of logical definitions that the problem of negative
numbers was finally sorted out.

However, there were references to negative numbers far earlier...

In 200 BCE the Chinese number rod system represented positive

numbers in Red and Negative numbers in black. These were used for
commercial and tax calculations where the black cancelled out the red.
The amount sold was positive (because of receiving money) and the
amount spent in purchasing something was negative (because of paying
out); so a money balance was positive, and a deficit negative.

The concept also appeared in Astronomy where the ideas of 'strong' and 'weak' were used for
approximating a number from above or below. For example approaching 5 from above means for example,
starting with 5.2 you can find better approximations 5.1, 5.05, 5.025. Thus 5.025 was called a 'strong'
approximation and a number like 4.9 'weak'. So 'strong' numbers were called positive and 'weak' numbers
negative.
In India , negative numbers did not appear until about 620 CE in the work of Brahmagupta (598 -
670) who used the ideas of 'fortunes' and 'debts' for positive and negative. By this time a system based on
place-value was established in India, with zero being used in the Indian number sytem. Brahmagupta used a
special sign for negatives and stated the rules for dealing with positive and negative quantities as follows:
A debt minus zero is a debt. The product of zero multiplied by zero is zero.
A fortune minus zero is a fortune. The product or quotient of two fortunes is one fortune.
. Zero minus zero is a zero. The product or quotient of two debts is ne fortune.
A debt subtracted from zero is a fortune The product or quotient of a debt and a fortune is a debt.
A fortune subtracted from zero is a debt. The product or quotient of a fortune and a debt is a debt.
The product of zero multiplied by a debt or fortune is zero.
1
Taken from http://nrich.maths.org/5961
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The conflict between geometry and algebra
The ancient Greeks did not really address the problem of negative numbers, because their
mathematics was founded on geometrical ideas. Lengths, areas, and volumes resulting from geometrical
constructions necessarily all had to be positive. Their proofs consisted of logical arguments based on the idea
of magnitude. Magnitudes were represented by a line or an area, and not by a number (like 4.3 metres or 26.5
cubic centimetres). In this way they could deal with 'awkward' numbers like square roots by representing
them as a line. For example, you can draw the diagonal of a square without having to measure it.
About 300 CE, the Alexandrian mathematician Diophantus (200 - c.284 CE) wrote his Arithmetica , a
collection of problems where he developed a series of symbols to represent the 'unknown' in a problem, and
powers of numbers. He dealt with what we now call linear and quadratic equations. In one problem
Diophantus wrote the equivalent of 4 = 4x + 20 which would give a negative result, and he called this result
'absurd'.
In the 9th century in Baghdad Al - Khwarizmi (c.780 - c.850 CE) presented six standard forms for linear
or quadratic equations and produced solutions using algebraic methods and geometrical diagrams. In his
algebraic methods he acknowledged that he derived ideas from the work of Brahmagupta and therefore was
happy with the notion of negative numbers. However, his geometrical models (based on the work of Greek
mathematicians) persuaded him that negative results were meaningless (how can you have a negative square?).
In a separate treatise on the laws of inheritance, Al-Khwarizmi represents negative quantities as debts.
In the 10th century Abul -Wafa (940-998 CE) used negative numbers to represent a debt in his work on
'what is necessary from the science of arithmetic for scribes and businessmen? This seems to be the only
place where negative numbers have been found in medieval Arabic mathematics. Abul-Wafa gives a general
rule and gives a special case where subtraction of 5 from 3 gives a "debt" of 2. He then multiples this by 10 to
obtain a "debt" of 20, which when added to a 'fortune' of 35 gives 15.

In the 12th century Al - Samawal (1130 - 1180) had produced an algebra where he stated that:

• if we subtract a positive number from an 'empty power', the same negative number remains,
• if we subtract the negative number from an 'empty power', the same positive number remains,
• the product of a negative number by a positive number is negative, and by a negative number is
positive.

Negative numbers did not begin to appear in Europe until the 15th century when scholars began to study
and translate the ancient texts that had been recovered from Islamic and Byzantine sources. This began a
process of building on ideas that had gone before, and the major spur to the development in mathematics
was the problem of solving quadratic and cubic equations.

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Solving equations

The story of the solution of equations begins in Italy in the 16th century. This story is full of intrigue
and deception because methods of solution were kept secret. The issue which caused most consternation at

the time was the meaning of −1 . In fact, Cardano (1501 - 1576) in his Ars Magna of 1545 had to solve a

problem where −15 appeared. Cardano found a sensible answer by working through the algorithm, but
he called these numbers 'ficticious' because not only did they disappear during the calculation, but they did
not seem to have any real meaning. However, by 1572, the Italian engineer, Bombelli (1526 - 1572) had
provided the correct rules for working with these 'imaginary' numbers.

In the 17th and 18th century, while they might not have been comfortable with their 'meaning' many
mathematicians were routinely working with negative and imaginary numbers in the theory of equations and
in the development of the calculus.

The English mathematician, John Wallis (1616 - 1703) is credited with giving some meaning to
negative numbers by inventing the number line, and in the early 18th century a controversy ensued between
Leibniz, Johan Bernoulli, Euler and d'Alembert about whether log(−x) was the same as Log(x).

Clairaut (1713-1765), also, on this subject, give his rules, in his " Elements of algebra " of 1746:

" It will be asked perhaps if one can add negatives with positives, or rather if one can say that one adds the negatives.
With what I answer that this expression is exact when one does not confuse to add with increasing. That two person for example
join their fortune, whatever they are, I say that that is to add their good, that one has some debts and some real goods, if the debt
exceeds the goods, he will owe only negative, and the junction of his fortune with that of the first one decrease the goods of this one,
so that the sum itself will be, or less than what the first had, or even entirely negative "

By the beginning of the 19th century Caspar Wessel (1745 - 1818) and Jean Argand (1768 - 1822) had
produced different mathematical representations of 'imaginary' numbers, and around the same time Augustus
De Morgan (1806 - 1871), George Peacock (1791 - 1858) William Hamilton (1805 - 1865) and others began
to work on the 'logic'of arithmetic and algebra and a clearer definition of negative numbers, imaginary
quantities, and the nature of the operations on them began to emerge.

Negative numbers and imaginaries are now built into the mathematical models of the physical world
of science, engineering and the commercial world. There are many applications of negative numbers today in
banking, commodity markets, electrical engineering, and anywhere we use a frame of reference as in
coordinate geometry, or relativity theory.

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 Brain Storming
1. Think about the following quotes and try to make a mathematical argument for both cases.

“I know people who cannot understand that when you subtract four from zero what is left is zero.”
Blaise Pascal
“How much is (+3) + (-3)? Two student opinions.
Tim: … is this just +3-3? Well, -3, this must be subtracted from +3, so that we get zero.
Teacher: This is one line of reasoning. Are there other? Nico?
Nico: That +3 come out. Because when we take +3+0 we also get +3, and -3 is even less than zero. 2”

a. How would you explain the reasoning used in Pascal’s quote?

Anthing less than zero is still physically nothing.

b. How would you explain Nico’s reasoning?

Nico believes -3 to be equivalent to zero because since it is less
than zero, then he views it as (+3)+(-3) as the same as (+3) + 0
2. What is misleading in the following reasoning?

French writer Stendhal expressed his distress in respect to the rule of the signs in its
autobiographical novel: Life of Henri Brulard ", in 1835. 3

My great misfortune was this figure:

Let us suppose that RP is the line which separates the positives from the negatives, all that is above is positive, as negative all that
is below; how, by taking the square B as many times as there are units in square A, can I manage to make change side the
square C?

And, while following an awkward comparison that the supremely slow accent from Grenoble of Mr. Chabert made still more
awkward, let us suppose that the negative quantities are the debts of a man, how by multiplying 10 000 francs of debt by 500
francs, this man will have or manage to get a fortune of 5 000 000, five million francs?

2
Hefender-Hebeker, L. 1991, Negative numbers: Obstacles in their evolution from intuitive to intellectual
constructs. For the Learning of Mathematics, 11(1), p. 26-32.
3
Taken from http://www.gobiernodecanarias.org/educacion/3/Usrn/penelope/uk_confboye.htm.
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Task

Think of a model for explaining the need for and existence of negative numbers.
How well your model explains concept of negative numbers and operations with negative numbers.
What are the limitations of your model? Are there any points that your model may be misleading in
explaining negative numbers?
One model for explaining the existence of negative numbers is to draw a
number line and then draw a "brick wall" at zero. We understand the space
on the right to be the world we live in, and space to the left is
"negative land." This will help younger kids perhaps understand that
numbers act differently in each space. It is misleading because it is
fictional and not really grounded in reality.
Discussion
How much can we make mathematics concrete to our students?
We are only limited by our immagination.

What may be possible obstacles if we are heavily dependent of concrete representations of

mathematical ideas? Think about geometric representation of numbers and resistance towards
negative numbers.

For learners who are not visual, it may be hard for them to understand.
Using other forms of learning is best to help all students understand the
concepts.