Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board 2 Questions

What's that? It sure didn't act like a rattlesnake and doesn't look to have the right head shape, but I've never seen another one like this.


Who signs the registers as Square Root of -1 (of course, they are using the symbol for square root over the -1)?

1. Is it a Gopher Snake? We have them up here. They have the same coloration as rattlesnakes, but are thinner and nondangerous (and lack the triangular head). See images here.

2. An imaginary number.

The person is posting some incredible times for the climb up Owens Peak, so that was my first thought when I saw the -1 under the square root symbol... except that I was thinking person, not number.

Yeah, that must be it... the shape and stripes on the head match up with my photo.

perhaps his name is Bernhard or Riemann -
the "Riemann surface" can be used with complex numbers including square roots of negative numbers

Square roots
Rieman

Yes, it's a gopher snake. Interestingly they have been known to partially coil and rattle their tail when threatened, defensively mimicking a rattlesnake.

sqr -1 = i