[Tutor] complex numbers: j vs. i

[Lance E Sloan]

I skimmed the Python documentation for a reason why the letter "j" is used 
to represent the imaginary part of complex numbers rather than the letter 
"i".  I didn't find anything.  In fact, I didn't see anything that 
mentioned either letter.  Perhaps I didn't look at the right document.  I 
was reading "Python Reference Manual" 
<URL:http://www.python.org/doc/current/ref/ref.html>.

Does anybody know why "j" is used?  I'm guessing that either "i" caused a 
conflict or that the Dutch word for "imaginary" starts with "j".

--
Lance E Sloan
Web Services, Univ. of Michigan: Full-service Web and database design,
development, and hosting.  Specializing in Python & Perl CGIs.
http://websvcs.itd.umich.edu/ - "Putting U on the Web"