why i

[Richard Brodie]

"Peter Hansen" <peter at engcorp.com> wrote in message news:N9KdnVD1v92IlS7d4p2dnA at powergate.ca...

> The idea that 'i' is mnemonic for 'integer' is interesting, though.
> If the mathematical field is really the origin, rather than FORTRAN,
> it would be interesting to know if that was how "they" picked it.
>
> Googling to little avail, the best I could find to help was Hilbert's
> 1900 address on "23 Mathematical Problems" which he gave to the Int'l
> Congress of Mathematics in Paris, proving a usage which predates
> FORTRAN by 50-some years.

I would assume vector algeba was the origin; Google can go back
to 1843 on that line:  http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Quaternion

That suggests that i, j, k notation is an extension of complex notation
so i must be the Euler i (1777) presumably standing for imaginary.