Tag Archives: Euler’s Formula

BB #93: Cube Roots of One

Thinking back on your math classes, you may recall that the square root of a number has two answers, one positive and one negative. For example, the square root of +9 is both +3 and -3 (the first one is known as the principal square root). Squaring +3 gives you +9, of course, but so does squaring -3.

Square roots aren’t the only roots of a number. For example, the (principal) cube root of +8 is +2 because +2³+2 × +2 × +2 = +8.

But just as square roots have two answers, cube roots have three (and fourth roots have four and so on and so on).

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Circular Math

Five years ago today I posted, Beautiful Math, which is about Euler’s Identity. In the first part of that post I explored why the Identity is so exquisitely beautiful (to mathematicians, anyway). In the second part, I showed that the Identity is a special case of Euler’s Formula, which relates trigonometry to the complex plane.

Since then I’ve learned how naïve that post was! It wasn’t wrong, but the relationship expressed in Euler’s Formula is fundamental and ubiquitous in science and engineering. It’s particularly important in quantum physics with regard to the infamous Schrödinger equation, but it shows up in many wave-based contexts.

It all hinges on the complex unit circle and the exp(i×π×a) function.

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Beautiful Math

Take a moment to gaze at Euler’s Identity:

Eulers Identity

It has been called “exquisite” and likened to a “Shakespearean sonnet.” It has earned the titles “the most famous” and “the most beautiful” formula in all of mathematics, and, in a mere seven symbols, symbolizes much of its foundation.

Today we’re going to graze on it!

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