>>11153971good points here
>>11153972imaginary numbers are invoked to give geometric symmetry in electromagnetic modelling. it's not a spook story with no basis (although those exist, see theoretical physics, pretty much all that shit is imaginary and not in the good way), its a practical invention that allows our functions to be made symmetric - since our universe enjoys a great deal of symmetry, this is simply how it is.
to continue on what i was saying here
>>11153990, the quantum periodic table is clearly numerical in some sense. it contains 7 yellow balls, 18 blue balls, 20 red balls and 14 green balls for a total of 59, or 118/2. clearly numbers are "real" but the way we understand numbers is only meta-real.
