Orateur
Mark Thakkar
(ERC I3-Radbound University)
Description
Girolamo Cardano’s Ars magna (1545) famously introduced complex conjugates as apparent solutions to certain “impossible” problems. It is often said that he had to dismiss “the mental tortures” before operating with such numbers, but this is the result of a mistranslation that has largely gone undetected for decades. After establishing as much, I will show that this misunderstanding is the tip of a hitherto unnoticed iceberg.