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ComplexNumbers
Thischapterintroducescomplexnumbers,beginningwithfactoringpolynomials,andproceeding
ontothecomplexplaneandEuler'sidentity.

FactoringaPolynomial
Remember``factoringpolynomials''?Considerthesecondorderpolynomial

Itissecondorderbecausethehighestpowerof is (onlynonnegativeintegerpowersof
areallowedinthiscontext).Thepolynomialisalsomonicbecauseitsleadingcoefficient,the
coefficientof ,is .Bythefundamentaltheoremofalgebra(discussedfurtherin2.4),there
areexactlytworoots(orzeros)ofanysecondorderpolynomial.Theserootsmayberealor
complex(tobedefined).Fornow,let'sassumetheyarebothrealanddenotethemby and .
Thenwehave

and

,andwecanwrite

Thisisthefactoredformofthemonicpolynomial

.(Foranonmonicpolynomial,wemay

simplydivideallcoefficientsbythefirsttomakeitmonic,andthisdoesn'taffectthezeros.)

Multiplyingoutthesymbolicfactoredformgives

Comparingwiththeoriginalpolynomial,wefindwemusthave

Thisisasystemoftwoequationsintwounknowns.Unfortunately,itisanonlinearsystemoftwo
equationsintwounknowns.2.1Nevertheless,becauseitissosmall,theequationsareeasily
solved.Inbeginningalgebra,wedidthembyhand.However,nowadayswecanuseasoftware
toolsuchasMatlaborOctavetosolveverylargesystemsoflinearequations.
Thefactoredformofthissimpleexampleis

Notethatpolynomialfactorizationrewritesamonic thorderpolynomialastheproductof first

ordermonicpolynomials,eachofwhichcontributesonezero(root)totheproduct.Thisfactoring
businessisoftenusedwhenworkingwithdigitalfilters[68].

TheQuadraticFormula
Thegeneralsecondorder(real)polynomialis
(2.1)

wherethecoefficients

areanyrealnumbers,andweassume

wouldnotbesecondorder.Someexperimentsplotting

sinceotherwiseit

fordifferentvaluesofthecoefficients

leadsonetoguessthatthecurveisalwaysascaledandtranslatedparabola.Thecanonical
parabolacenteredat
isgivenby
(2.2)

wherethemagnitudeof determinesthewidthoftheparabola,and providesanarbitrary

verticaloffset.If
,theparabolahastheminimumvalue at
when
,the
parabolareachesamaximumat

(alsoequalto ).Ifwecanfind

intermsof

foranyquadraticpolynomial,thenwecaneasilyfactorthepolynomial.Thisiscalledcompleting
thesquare.MultiplyingouttherighthandsideofEq. (2.2)above,weget

(2.3)

Equatingcoefficientsoflikepowersof tothegeneralsecondorderpolynomialinEq. (2.1)

gives

Usingtheseanswers,anysecondorderpolynomial

canberewrittenasa

scaled,translatedparabola

Inthisform,therootsareeasilyfoundbysolving

toget

Thisisthegeneralquadraticformula.Itwasobtainedbysimplealgebraicmanipulationofthe
originalpolynomial.Thereisonlyone``catch.''Whathappenswhen
isnegative?This
introducesthesquarerootofanegativenumberwhichwecouldinsist``doesnotexist.''
Alternatively,wecouldinventcomplexnumberstoaccommodateit.

ComplexRoots

Figure2.1:Anexampleparaboladefinedby
.
Asasimpleexample,let

,and

,i.e.,

AsshowninFig.2.1,thisisaparabolacenteredat

(where

)andreachingupward

topositiveinfinity,nevergoingbelow .Ithasnorealzeros.Ontheotherhand,thequadratic
formulasaysthatthe``roots''aregivenformallyby
.Thesquarerootofany
negativenumber

canbeexpressedas

,sotheonlynewalgebraicobjectis

Let'sgiveitaname:

Then,formally,therootsof

are

,andwecanformallyexpressthepolynomialinterms

ofitsrootsas

Wecanthinkoftheseas``imaginaryroots''inthesensethatsquarerootsofnegativenumbers
don'treallyexist,orwecanextendtheconceptof``roots''toallowforcomplexnumbers,thatis,
numbersoftheform

where and arerealnumbers,and

Itcanbecheckedthatallalgebraicoperationsforrealnumbers2.2applyequallywelltocomplex
numbers.Bothrealnumbersandcomplexnumbersareexamplesofamathematicalfield.2.3
Fieldsareclosedwithrespecttomultiplicationandaddition,andalltherulesofalgebraweusein
manipulatingpolynomialswithrealcoefficients(androots)carryoverunchangedtopolynomials
withcomplexcoefficientsandroots.Infact,therulesofalgebrabecomesimplerforcomplex
numbersbecause,asdiscussedinthenextsection,wecanalwaysfactorpolynomialscompletely
overthefieldofcomplexnumberswhilewecannotdothisoverthereals(aswesawinthe
example
).

FundamentalTheoremofAlgebra

Thisisaverypowerfulalgebraictool.2.4Itsaysthatgivenanypolynomial

wecanalwaysrewriteitas

wherethepoints

arethepolynomialroots,andtheymayberealorcomplex.

ComplexBasics
Thissectionintroducesvariousnotationandtermsassociatedwithcomplexnumbers.As
discussedabove,complexnumbersarisebyintroducingthesquarerootof asaprimitivenew
algebraicobjectamongrealnumbersandmanipulatingitsymbolicallyasifitwerearealnumber
itself:

Mathematiciansandphysicistsoftenuse insteadof as

.Theuseof iscommonin

engineeringwhere ismoreoftenusedforelectricalcurrent.
Asmentionedabove,foranynegativenumber

where

,wehave

denotestheabsolutevalueof .Thus,everysquarerootofanegativenumbercanbe

expressedas timesthesquarerootofapositivenumber.
Bydefinition,wehave

andsoon.Thus,thesequence
since

isaperiodicsequencewithperiod ,

.(We'lllearnlaterthatthesequence

isasampledcomplexsinusoid

havingfrequencyequaltoonefourththesamplingrate.)
Everycomplexnumber canbewrittenas

where and arerealnumbers.Wecall therealpartand theimaginarypart.Wemayalso

usethenotation

Notethattherealnumbersarethesubsetofthecomplexnumbershavingazeroimaginarypart(
).
Theruleforcomplexmultiplicationfollowsdirectlyfromthedefinitionoftheimaginaryunit :


Insomemathematicstexts,complexnumbers aredefinedasorderedpairsofrealnumbers
,andalgebraicoperationssuchasmultiplicationaredefinedmoreformallyasoperationson
orderedpairs,e.g.,

.However,suchformalitytends

toobscuretheunderlyingsimplicityofcomplexnumbersasastraightforwardextensionofreal
numberstoinclude
.
Itisimportanttorealizethatcomplexnumberscanbetreatedalgebraicallyjustlikerealnumbers.
Thatis,theycanbeadded,subtracted,multiplied,divided,etc.,usingexactlythesamerulesof
algebra(sincebothrealandcomplexnumbersaremathematicalfields).Itisoftenpreferableto
thinkofcomplexnumbersasbeingthetrueandpropersettingforalgebraicoperations,withreal
numbersbeingthelimitedsubsetforwhich
.

TheComplexPlane

Figure2.2:Plottingacomplex
numberasapointinthecomplex
plane.
Wecanplotanycomplexnumber

inaplaneasanorderedpair

,asshownin

Fig.2.2.Acomplexplane(orArganddiagram)isany2Dgraphinwhichthehorizontalaxisisthe
realpartandtheverticalaxisistheimaginarypartofacomplexnumberorfunction.Asan
example,thenumber hascoordinates
inthecomplexplanewhilethenumber has
coordinates
Plotting

.
asthepoint

inthecomplexplanecanbeviewedasaplotinCartesian

orrectilinearcoordinates.Wecanalsoexpresscomplexnumbersintermsofpolarcoordinatesas
anorderedpair
,where isthedistancefromtheorigin
tothenumberbeingplotted,

and istheangleofthenumberrelativetothepositiverealcoordinateaxis(thelinedefinedby
and
).(SeeFig.2.2.)
Usingelementarygeometry,itisquicktoshowthatconversionfromrectangulartopolar
coordinatesisaccomplishedbytheformulas

where

denotesthearctangentof

(theangle inradianswhosetangentis

),takingthequadrantofthevector

intoaccount.Wewilltake intherange

to (althoughwecouldchooseanyintervaloflength

radians,suchas0to

,etc.).

InMatlabandOctave,atan2(y,x)performsthe``quadrantsensitive''arctangentfunction.Onthe
otherhand,atan(y/x),likethemoretraditionalmathematicalnotation
doesnot
``know''thequadrantof

,soitmapstheentirereallinetotheinterval

specificexample,theangleofthevector
theangleof
sametangentas
Theformula

.Asa

(inquadrantI)hasthesametangentas

(inquadrantIII).Similarly,

(quadrantII)yieldsthe

(quadrantIV).
forconvertingrectangularcoordinatestoradius ,followsimmediately

fromthePythagoreantheorem,whilethe

followsfromthedefinitionofthetangent

functionitself.
Similarly,conversionfrompolartorectangularcoordinatesissimply

Thesefollowimmediatelyfromthedefinitionsofcosineandsine,respectively.

MoreNotationandTerminology
It'salreadybeenmentionedthattherectilinearcoordinatesofacomplexnumber

in

thecomplexplanearecalledtherealpartandimaginarypart,respectively.
Wealsohavespecialnotationandvariousnamesforthepolarcoordinates
number :

ofacomplex


Thecomplexconjugateof isdenoted (or

where,ofcourse,

)andisdefinedby

Ingeneral,youcanalwaysobtainthecomplexconjugateofanyexpressionbysimplyreplacing
with

.Inthecomplexplane,thisisaverticalflipabouttherealaxisi.e.,complexconjugation

replaceseachpointinthecomplexplanebyitsmirrorimageontheothersideofthe axis.

ElementaryRelationships
Fromtheabovedefinitions,onecanquicklyverify

Let'sverifythethirdrelationshipwhichstatesthatacomplexnumbermultipliedbyitsconjugateis
equaltoitsmagnitudesquared:
(2.4)

Euler'sIdentity
Since

isthealgebraicexpressionof intermsofitsrectangularcoordinates,the

correspondingexpressionintermsofitspolarcoordinatesis

Thereisanother,morepowerfulrepresentationof intermsofitspolarcoordinates.Inorderto

defineit,wemustintroduceEuler'sidentity:
(2.5)

AproofofEuler'sidentityisgiveninthenextchapter.Before,theonlyalgebraicrepresentationof
acomplexnumberwehadwas
,whichfundamentallyusesCartesian(rectilinear)
coordinatesinthecomplexplane.Euler'sidentitygivesusanalternativerepresentationinterms
ofpolarcoordinatesinthecomplexplane:

We'llcall

thepolarformofthecomplexnumber ,incontrastwiththerectangularform
.Polarformoftensimplifiesalgebraicmanipulationsofcomplexnumbers,especially

whentheyaremultipliedtogether.Simplerulesofexponentscanoftenbeusedinplaceof
messiertrigonometricidentities.Inthecaseoftwocomplexnumbersbeingmultiplied,wehave

AcorollaryofEuler'sidentityisobtainedbysetting

toget

Thishasbeencalledthe``mostbeautifulformulainmathematics''duetotheextremelysimple
forminwhichthefundamentalconstants
,and0,togetherwiththeelementaryoperations
ofaddition,multiplication,exponentiation,andequality,allappearexactlyonce.
Foranotherexampleofmanipulatingthepolarformofacomplexnumber,let'sagainverify
,aswedidaboveinEq. (2.4),butthistimeusingpolarform:

Asmentionedin2.7,anycomplexexpressioncanbeconjugatedbyreplacing by
whereveritoccurs.Thisimplies
byusingEuler'sidentitytoexpand

,asusedabove.Thesameresultcanbeobtained
into
andnegatingtheimaginarypart

toobtain
thatcosineisanevenfunction(

,whereweusedalsothefact
)whilesineisodd(

Wecannoweasilyaddafourthlinetothatsetofexamples:

).

Thus,

forevery

Euler'sidentitycanbeusedtoderiveformulasforsineandcosineintermsof

Similarly,

,andweobtainthefollowingclassicidentities:

DeMoivre'sTheorem
Asamorecomplicatedexampleofthevalueofthepolarform,we'llproveDeMoivre'stheorem:

Workingthisoutusingsumofangleidentitiesfromtrigonometryislaborious(see3.13for
details).However,usingEuler'sidentity,DeMoivre'stheoremsimply``fallsout'':

Moreover,bythepowerofthemethodusedtoshowtheresult, canbeanyrealnumber,not
justaninteger.

Conclusion
Thischapterhascoveredjustenoughaboutcomplexnumberstoenableustotalkaboutthe
discreteFouriertransform.
ManipulationsofcomplexnumbersinMatlabandOctaveareillustratedinI.1.
Toexplorefurtherthemathematicsofcomplexvariables,seeanytextbooksuchasChurchill[15]
orLePage[37].Topicsnotcoveredhere,butwhichareimportantelsewhereinsignalprocessing,
includeanalyticfunctions,contourintegration,analyticcontinuation,residuecalculus,and

conformalmapping.

Complex_NumberProblems
Seehttp://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/mdftp/Complex_Number_Problems.html
NextSection:
ProofofEuler'sIdentity
PreviousSection:
IntroductiontotheDFT

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MathematicsoftheDFT
DetailedderivationoftheDiscreteFourierTransform(DFT)anditsassociatedmathematics,
includingelementaryaudiosignalprocessingapplicationsandmatlabprogrammingexamples.
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