How to determine the roots of

since

(see Lecture 13), we write

so

Hence, the four roots of our equation are

Roots of Unity
Definition: A number
write
.

is said to be an -th root of a complex number , if

Theorem: Every complex number

has exactly

, and we

distinct -th roots.

The equation
The equation
has complex solutions. These solutions are called roots of unity. The
easiest way to write down these solutions is using the polar form for complex numbers.
Roots of Unity

The th roots of unity are those numbers that satisfy the equation

By definition, a cube root of unity is a solution of the equation

. Clearly,
one solution. Which are the other two solutions? The remaining two roots.
Finding the nth roots of unity
We know that
.

if and only if

Hence, using polar notation for

and
we have

for some integer

is

so,

for some integer

Therefore,

The solutions to the equation are then

These points lie on the circle of radius

, and they are equally spaced at every
radians. See Wolfram MathWorld for animation of the roots of unity.
This result also says that there are distinct roots corresponding to
since we will get back to where we started once we reach
.
Hence, there are

th roots of unity given by

In some textbooks we find the roots of unity denoted as

so

And state the th roots of unity are 1,

Example 1. Find the roots for

Solution: We must find the numbers that satisfy the equation

. We already said
that one root is 1. Now, since
, we determine the second root as

and the third root as

Hence, the three solutions of the equation

Polar Form

are

Rectangular Form

Example 2. Find the roots for

Explanation

Solution: Just as above, we find the numbers that satisfy the equation
Since

, we determine the second root as

the third root as

and the fourth root as

Hence, the three solutions of the equation

Polar Form

Rectangular Form

are
Explanation

Additional Details on above formulation

Let

We need to find the numbers and . Assume that is positive and that is in
any complex number (except 0, which is not a solution) can be written in this way.
If

solves the equation

, then

, since

, that is

This means that

must be a way to write the number 1 in polar form. In particular, we
must have
, since this has to be the absolute value of 1. So
, since thats the only
positive real number whose nth power is 1. So
is a way to write 1 in polar form.
Also, when we multiply by , the result must be the correct angle for the complex number 1.
This angle is 0 radians. So
will give one solution:
.
As you know,
is not the only possible solution. If you remember, there are other angles
so that
is the same as an angle as 0 (meaning that it has the same sine and cosine, hence
describes the same point in polar coordinates). It is also possible that

for any integer . This gives the rest of the possible values of :

. Hence,

Taking
and
give the same solution (the resulting values of differ by ). Since
we only care about angles in
(since any other angle is equivalent to one of these), we
restrict to the values k = 0, 1, 2, , (
to

) such that

. This gives all the solutions

, expressed in polar form.

The equation

in general

To solve the equation

ideas:
(1) Express the number
(2) Notice that any
angle such that
cosine as

for other complex numbers (besides

), follow the same

in polar notation, that is

such that
can be written in the polar form
, where is an
for some integer (this means that
has the same sine and

For example, consider the equation

square root of 4, we see that solutions to

. The number has polar form

must have the form

. Taking the

where

is an angle such that

we only care about two values:

Hence, there are two solutions to

for some integer k. That is,

and

Of course

. In polar form they are

Example 3: Find the roots of the equation

Solution: Since

, the solution of the above equation are the fifth roots of

The five roots are

Example 4. Determine the location of the zeros of the function

Solution:

as we saw in Example 2, at
zero.

. At each of these points

Example 5: Evaluate by means of the residue theorem

The zeros of

are

Then we find the residues at those points within

, and

.
.

as a first order