Jean Robert Argand

  • complex numbers

    TITLE: mathematics: Elliptic functions
    SECTION: Elliptic functions
    ...a complex variable was also being decisively reformulated. At the start of the 19th century, complex numbers were discussed from a quasi-philosophical standpoint by several French writers, notably Jean-Robert Argand. A consensus emerged that complex numbers should be thought of as pairs of real numbers, with suitable rules for their addition and multiplication so that the pair (0, 1) was...