Why is light represented with complex number?

Question

Just wondering. What does the imagenary component represent?

Would appreciate refrences and more reading material

thanks,

Answer 1

An imaginary component represents nothing by himself. But as the waves can be represented by formula containing sinuses and cosines, it is very convenient to use

e^(ift) = cos 2Pift +i sin2Pift

after you have finished all your calculation, in order to found the meaning, you have to search the real part of the result