• Kogasa@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    23 days ago

    That’s not relevant to what they said, which is that distances can’t be imaginary. They’re correct. A metric takes nonnegative real values by definition

    • Brainsploosh@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      23 days ago

      Why can’t a complex number be described in a Banach-Tarsky space?

      In such a case the difference between any two complex numbers would be a distance. And sure, formally a distance would need be a scalar, but for most practical use anyone would understand a vector as a distance with a direction.

      • Kogasa@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        23 days ago

        The distance between two complex numbers is the modulus or their difference, a real number