It’s simpler than you think: you just treat i as an unknown variable where all you know is that i^2 = −1. Then if you want to, say, multiply together two complex numbers, it’s all the algebra you’re already familiar with: (a + bi)(c + di) = ac + adi + bci + bdi^2 = ac—bd + (ad + bc)i. That’s it—that’s all the complex maths you need to follow the QM sequence.
To better understand why it is used imagine a map, going right is +, going left is -, going up is i, going down is -i. Turning left is multiplying by i, turning right is multiplying by -i.
So i is used to calculate things where you need 2 dimensions.
It’s simpler than you think: you just treat i as an unknown variable where all you know is that i^2 = −1. Then if you want to, say, multiply together two complex numbers, it’s all the algebra you’re already familiar with: (a + bi)(c + di) = ac + adi + bci + bdi^2 = ac—bd + (ad + bc)i. That’s it—that’s all the complex maths you need to follow the QM sequence.
Alright, thanks.
To better understand why it is used imagine a map, going right is +, going left is -, going up is i, going down is -i. Turning left is multiplying by i, turning right is multiplying by -i. So i is used to calculate things where you need 2 dimensions.