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skeeve87 t1_j6ca81v wrote

Reply to comment by Future_Club1171 in ELI5: Why do imaginary numbers even need to exist? by Tharsis101

As a control systems engineer......what?

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Future_Club1171 t1_j6cys20 wrote

It’s been awhile for me, not a control engineer but did my studies in mechanical engineering. So can’t speak for what you use in your day to day, but from what I remember controls (the math behind it) is tied with laplus transformation and the whole 1/t. Basically from those classes for feedback controls the zeros in laplus will say how it behaves in real life. And one way to avoid real zeros is forcing imaginary ones.

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skeeve87 t1_j6dr80v wrote

Ohhh Laplace transformations. I graduated electrical engineering, we used it a ton in school.

I haven't used it since class.

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Future_Club1171 t1_j6dysd4 wrote

Given what I’ve heard of most engineers, because we have software designed to solve all that stuff most of the stuff in class we don’t use ourselves lol. Though understanding the theory behind it still helps. Specially when something goes wrong you know what to look for.

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