# Why, a math riddle for you!

I am not real,
but I am part of a complicated thing.
Two is negative?

What am I?

• Dec 24 '20 at 23:33
• I made this one up myself. Dec 24 '20 at 23:34
• I know, just linking some places where people had pretty much the same idea for a riddle before. Dec 24 '20 at 23:35
• To perhaps explain the downvotes: this is incredibly simple, and also very short. I think probably everyone who looks at this with any knowledge of maths will be able to solve this in seconds. Riddles should make you have to really think and should generally be longer than this, and if they’re short, most good ones have some sort of clever ‘trick’. I recommended checking out the top rated riddles here to see what people are looking for Dec 25 '20 at 2:12
• Please do not be discouraged. I have noticed that here on PSE folks seem to like challenging, original and thought provoking puzzles. It is hard to design great puzzles. Please follow @Beastly Gerbil comment. Sometimes test driving your puzzle on your friends before posting works well.
– DrD
Dec 26 '20 at 12:11

$$i$$ or $$\sqrt{-1}$$

## Explanation:

I am not real

$$i$$ is called an imaginary number, and isn't part of set of real numbers aka $$\mathbb{R}$$

But I am part of a complicated thing.

Complex numbers in math are written as $$a+bi$$

Two is negative

By definition $$ii=i^2=-1$$