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Question: What is I (the imaginary unit)?

Question:What is I (the imaginary unit)?

mmcdara 6149 Maple
imaginaryunit
December 17 2020
1

Hi, 
I wonder what is I in MAPLE?
Obviously I is not an indeterminate

z := a+I*b:
indets(z);

# but

has(z, I)
                             {a, b}
                              true

What does this answer mean:

whattype(I);
                   complex(extended_numeric)

I would have thought that  I was some kind of protected symbol such as Pi, but it's not

attributes(Pi);
attributes(I);
                           protected

In fact, trying to assign 1 to I just returns an error saying this is not legal assignment

I:=1
Error, illegal use of an object as a name

So, what is I in Maple?

Thanks in advance
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