  One of the main results of Scale Relativity as regards the foundation of
quantum mechanics is its explanation of the origin of the complex nature of the
wave function. The Scale Relativity theory introduces an explicit dependence of
physical quantities on scale variables, founding itself on the theorem
according to which a continuous and non-differentiable space-time is fractal
(i.e., scale-divergent). In the present paper, the nature of the scale
variables and their relations to resolutions and differential elements are
specified in the non-relativistic case (fractal space). We show that, owing to
the scale-dependence which it induces, non-differentiability involves a
fundamental two-valuedness of the mean derivatives. Since, in the scale
relativity framework, the wave function is a manifestation of the velocity
field of fractal space-time geodesics, the two-valuedness of velocities leads
to write them in terms of complex numbers, and yields therefore the complex
nature of the wave function, from which the usual expression of the
Schr\"odinger equation can be derived.
