Working with Complex Numbers This is an easy step forward, trust that and you will not make

this harder than it needs to be. Often, when people see a new symbol in math, they believe it to be something fundamentally new. This is not. 1st: How would you simplify (3 x) + (6 + 2x)? We can use the associative and commutative properties to change the expression to (3 + 6) + (x + 2x)? With like terms together we can combine to leave only 9 + x. Simple right? 2nd: You may be wondering why we just spent time talking about such a simple example. Here is why. How would you simplify (3 i) + (6 + 2i)? We can use the associative and commutative properties to change the expression to (3 + 6) + (i + 2 i)? With like terms together we can combine to leave only 9 + i. Just like above. Try another example: (2 + i) (3 7i) After you try this on your own, look at the back side of this paper (or end of the document) to check your answer. But what is this new symbol i? 3rd: What we have seen is that i behaves the same as x for addition and subtraction. This is because in equations x represents any number. And this new symbol just represents another number. This symbol came into existence when people were trying to define numbers such as . So far we have pretended that numbers such as these did not exist. Now we are changing the game (as happens repeatedly in K-12 math) by simply defining a new number for the square root of negative one, = i. Using rules of radicals we see that i2 = i i = = = 1.

So above , by the product rule for radicals also equals . And this can be simplified (by substitution) with our definition of = i to give i .

4th: In this last note we will look at multiplication. On your own, try to simplify . Next replace the x with i. Look at the bottom of this page to check your answer. Now that we know that i2 = i i = = = 1. We can see that if we will have one more step of simplification. The term will turn into . By substitution and knowing that , we will have . Combine this with the other constant piece and we are done. Lets look at one done out. Use the FOIL method to expand the product:

But since we know that Now , so rewrite

we can substitute and get as .

And now we see the like terms 40 and 3. Combine these to get 43 + 19i. DONE! Congratulations, you now know how to work with Imaginary and Complex numbers. An imaginary number is one that just has is. Examples: 3i, 4i, -77i, 137i A complex number is a combination of both real and imaginary numbers. Examples: . .

Combining with addition: (2 + i) (3 7i) should turn into 2 3 + i + 7i after you distribute the minus sign into the second set of parentheses. Combining the like terms will leave you with 5 + 8i. Combining with multiplication: In the next step, when we substitute using x = i we get reduces to NOW FIND YOURSELF SOME PRACTICE!! which .