Is it really the scariest chart in electrical engineering? Maybe not.
It's scary, but it's also damn useful.
I think there are 2 reasons that engineers find the Smith Chart intimidating. The first is simple. People learn Cartesean Coordinates in middle school. They get exposed to just enough of the Polar Coordinate system to hate it, and not enough to know when it is useful. So in the end, they don't like anything that doesn't look like a standard X-Y plane.
The second reason is that the chart itself is based on Imaginary numbers (the Square root of -1), and they don't trust the math enough to just use it. even though it has been shown to work.
This is the Veritasium video The Scariest Chart in Electrical Engineering
Well, and a fair number of the charts do say "Black Magic Design" on the chart itself. It does simplify certain calculations around antenna design; that can seem magical.
We've verified that this crazy map switch from the complex plane to the reflection coefficient plane leading to these insane appearing circles, they actually mean something. Like, in real life we've used it to increase the power. Crazy. It is crazy.
I first encountered the Smith Chart in college, and later when I was getting/upgrading my Ham radio license. The video is long, at 40 minutes, but I enjoyed it.
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