Chapter 6: Complex Numbers
Even the great physicist Erwin Schrödinger was perplexed by the occurrence of complex numbers in quantum mechanics. Yet, complex numbers have been found to be inherent to quantum mechanics and, hence, quantum computing. Up until now, we have concentrated on the real numbers to make concepts easier to get across. It is time now to cross the Rubicon and make our way into the complex plane. You have probably come across complex numbers before, but we will go into great depths about them in this chapter. I think it is unfortunate that René Descartes named i an imaginary number, as it makes it seem that this topic should be otherworldly. But so was the number 0 when it was introduced, and the same with negative numbers. No one gives...
