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David_Gerard comments on How accurate is the quantum physics sequence? - Less Wrong
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It appears to be one of the least-read of the original Sequences - I say this based on the low, zero or even negative karma scores and the few comments. This is evidence for the precise opposite of your claim.
Data point: I only read part of the QM sequence, but that wasn't due to the verbosity as such, but rather because I wasn't familiar with complex numbers and it felt like too much work to learn to use a new math concept and then work my way through the calculations.
It's simpler than you think: you just treat i as an unknown variable where all you know is that i^2 = -1. Then if you want to, say, multiply together two complex numbers, it's all the algebra you're already familiar with: (a + bi)(c + di) = ac + adi + bci + bdi^2 = ac - bd + (ad + bc)i. That's it - that's all the complex maths you need to follow the QM sequence.
Alright, thanks.
To better understand why it is used imagine a map, going right is +, going left is -, going up is i, going down is -i. Turning left is multiplying by i, turning right is multiplying by -i. So i is used to calculate things where you need 2 dimensions.
Okay, thanks. I have only read the first few posts. On those, the karma score was higher and there was positive feedback from readers saying it was helpful to them. I should have read further in the series before characterizing it as a whole.