I asked a question about a generic form of complex exponentiation, and it got closed on the grounds that "I need more context". I'm happy to oblige, but I don't know exactly what I need to improve. Does the exact use case I need complex exponentiation for need to be included? (I'm trying to implement a fully featured complex number class in a code library.) Thanks in advance.
9
-
2$\begingroup$ It was not deleted. It was closed. Have you checked the links given in the close banner? e.g. math.meta.stackexchange.com/a/9960 ? $\endgroup$– Xander Henderson ModAug 6 at 20:32
-
1$\begingroup$ @XanderHenderson Ooops! Sorry, I meant closed. I'll fix that. But yes, I have, and I still am not sure what I need to fix $\endgroup$– JmeAug 6 at 20:34
-
5$\begingroup$ You should know some of the theory of complex analysis in order to understand why there is no well defined value for (say) $i^i$. This is the subject of many earlier posts on Math.SE, so you need to be more forthcoming about what motivates your Question. $\endgroup$– hardmathAug 6 at 23:15
-
2$\begingroup$ @hardmath Ah, I'm still pretty new to advanced math with complex numbers, and I didn't understand that. If I edited mentioning that I'm trying to implement exponents for complex numbers in code, would that help? $\endgroup$– JmeAug 7 at 4:18
-
1$\begingroup$ It might help. Essentially (as the Comments left on your Question try to convey) some domain restrictions are needed to make the operation of complex exponentiation well-defined (single-valued). What restrictions one wants naturally depend on the purpose of your code library. $\endgroup$– hardmathAug 7 at 4:41
-
1$\begingroup$ OP has deleted the question. $\endgroup$– Gerry MyersonAug 13 at 21:37
-
6$\begingroup$ @GerryMyerson Yeah, even after updating it it was still closed for some reason? I just gave up honestly $\endgroup$– JmeAug 14 at 4:18
-
$\begingroup$ So happy the moderators are back off strike! /s $\endgroup$– Brady GilgAug 17 at 19:10
-
1$\begingroup$ @BradyGilg ? wdym $\endgroup$– JmeAug 17 at 20:48
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
3
The closure reason was to "provide additional context". Admittedly, that is not terribly explanatory; however, if one follows the link to provide additional context, several methods of adding context are given. It is hard to answer a question when the level of the asker is not known. Context can help there.
Although not used as a reason to close this question, a question can be closed for being a duplicate. This question may have (partial) answers elsewhere as mentioned in the comments.
-
4$\begingroup$ I had read that and was still confused, so I asked here. I searched the site but could not find an answer to my question, other than the fact that it may have multiple answers? And something about needing a logarithm defined first. $\endgroup$– JmeAug 15 at 1:29
-
$\begingroup$ The answers to Complex power of a complex number (which was mentioned in a comment) seem to be useful. $\endgroup$– robjohn ModAug 15 at 6:07
-
5$\begingroup$ As for the addition of context, some of the suggestions were 1. Include your work: you mentioned you know how to raise a complex number to the power $i$. You could include that. Doing that gets you most of the way there. 2. You can tell us where the question comes from: the course or the book would give a clue to the level of answer needed. 3. Give definitions: this can be useful in many cases; in this case, the definition of the complex log and the complex exponential might prove useful. $\endgroup$– robjohn ModAug 15 at 6:13