An Impossible Triangle
ps- more of an unreal triangle (or imaginary even)

The Impossible Triangle


So, you might remember the 'i' used here, that's our very own imaginary number, iota.
So, first thing's first, you know the Pythagoras Theorum, right? Well even if you don't here's what it is:


Pythagoras Theorum


This theorum is for right angled triangles only, i.e. triangles with one angle equal to 90 degrees or π/2 radians.
Here,
a = perpendicular
b = base
c = hypotenuse
and Mr. Pythagoras said that the relation between these three sides is given as:

a2 + b2 = c2



And the hypotenuse is clearly the longest side of a right angles triangle. So, the triangle we have here has:
perpendicular = i (= √-1)
base = 1
Now from our equation we have:

(1)2 + (i)2 = (hypotenuse)2
(1)2 + (√-1)2 = (hypotenuse)2
1 + (-1) = hypotenuse2
0 = hypotenuse



So the hypotenuse, the longest side of our triangle, is 0, which is shorter than the base (1>0 duh!).
So what does it mean?
Is this triangle not possible?

Well "not possible" is not the word I would use, see, in complex mathematics ( the branch of maths which discusses complex number, which are numbers of the form a+ib ) numbers are two dimensional entities, with the real part of the number on the x-axis and the imaginary part of the number on the y-axis.

complex grid


Looking at the above image you can make out how one would think this triangle is possible but one key thing about complex mathematics is, you can't measure imaginary entities in lengths.
Doesn't make sense to you? Well its simple, see when me measure lengths, we say 1cm or 1m, the units are important, you don't say the pen is 1 long.
1 what? 1 keyboard? 1 sandwich? 1 aeroplane?
Also iota is not a real number. And funnily enough the cartesian representation ( the one with x and y axes) is only a representation, and not to be confused with where the numbers exist.
So to be very clear, iota (i) doesn't exist 😂, and its not a number that one can use to define measurements. So, weirdly enough, our triangle is not a triangle.
The way I like to look at it is:
Imagine a pole standing on the ground, now from the base of the pole go away in a single direction as far as the height of the pole, now once we're here, look at the pole.
A triangle would be a rope going from the top of the pole to your hand, but in this case the pole bends and tries to reach you but it can't, so the ground below your feet also bends to make you and the pole touch.
This is getting messy, but this is the way it is, for the hypotenuse to be 0 or the shortest side means that the figure doesn't represent a triangle.
So does that mean all of this was nonsense? Complete bullcrap? Well, look, its a theory. I like to think that the curved weird figure which is trying to make the ends meet ( like all of us :/ ), is a triangle.
My cute little impossible, unreal, imaginary triangle :)