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Old 12-07-2005, 04:12 PM
sweetjazz sweetjazz is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Rhode Island
Posts: 95
Default Re: Math/ imaginary numbers

Nothing unusual here -- every complex number (besides zero) has two square roots. Since (-4)^3 = -64, the two values of (-4)^(3/2) are 8i and -8i.

It's nothing different than the fact that there are two square roots of 2: 2^(1/2) and -(2^(1/2)). When taking the square root of a positive real number, we can always pick the positive one if we like. When taking the square root of a complex number, neither one is positive or negative, so each square root is as good as the other.

Hope that helps.
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