Saturday, 25 January 2014

complex numbers - $1/i=i$. I must be wrong but why?





$$\frac{1}{i} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{-1}} = \frac{\sqrt{1}}{\sqrt{-1}} = \sqrt{\frac{1}{-1}} = \sqrt{-1} = i$$



I know this is wrong, but why? I often see people making simplifications such as $\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$, and I would calculate such a simplification in the manner shown above, namely



$$\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2} = \frac{\sqrt{2}}{\sqrt{4}} = \sqrt{\frac{2}{4}} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$$


Answer




What you are doing is a version of
$$
-1=i^2=\sqrt{-1}\sqrt{-1}=\sqrt{(-1)(-1)}=\sqrt1=1.
$$
It simply shows that for non-positive numbers, it is not always true that $\sqrt{ab}=\sqrt{a}\sqrt{b}$.


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