This is basically the staple way of explaining the topic in my country. It was a very bizzare concept for 13 year old me so it made understanding it a lot easier.
Sorry for the question, but where are you from? I learned this with my mother, so I don't know if it's something common here (Brazil) or something that she picked from her Polish or Italian relatives.
That's surprisingly accurate, as people here are highlighting (it makes geometrical sense when dealing with complex numbers).
My nephew once asked me this question. The way that I explained it was like this:
It's a different analogy but it makes intuitive sense, even for kids. And it works nice as mnemonic too.
This is basically the staple way of explaining the topic in my country. It was a very bizzare concept for 13 year old me so it made understanding it a lot easier.
Sorry for the question, but where are you from? I learned this with my mother, so I don't know if it's something common here (Brazil) or something that she picked from her Polish or Italian relatives.