Complex Numbers

The complex number system is an algebraic system which contains the real numbers as well as an imaginary unit, a number denoted by i, which has the property that i2 = 1. (We note that the real number system contains no number whose square is 1.) In this extended number system, every number can be represented in the form a + bi, where a and b are real numbers, and where i is the imaginary unit. A number of the form a + bi is referred to as a complex number, and a and b are referred to as the real part and the imaginary part of the complex number, respectively. When b = 0, we just write a instead of a + 0i, and in this way real numbers are represented as complex numbers whose imaginary part is 0. In particular, 0 + 0i is just denoted by 0. Similarly, a complex number of the form 0 + bi is written more simply as bi and is referred to as a pure imaginary number. If z1 = a1 + b1 i and z2 = a2 + b2 i are two complex numbers, then z1 = z2 if and only if a1 = a2 and b1 = b2 . Complex numbers can be added and multiplied according to the following denitions: If z1 = a1 + b1 i and z2 = a2 + b2 i, then z1 + z2 = (a1 + a2 ) + (b1 + b2 )i and z1 z2 = (a1 a2 b1 b2 ) + (a1 b2 + a2 b1 )i. We note that these are the results one would get by applying the usual rules of arithmetic to z1 and z2 , using the added relation that i2 = 1. If z = a + bi is a complex number we dene the conjugate of z, denoted by z, to be the complex number z = a bi. We also dene the modulus of z, denoted by |z|, as follows: |z| = a2 + b2 . Note that |z| is a nonnegative real number. The real and imaginary parts of z are often denoted by Re(z) and Im(z), respectively. That is, Re(z) = a and Im(z) = b. (Note, we sometimes write a + ib instead of a + bi; but this is not common.) Example 1 (i) (2 + 3i) + (5 2i) = 7 + i. (ii) (2 + 3i)(5 2i) = (2)(5) (2)(2i) + (3i)(5) (3i)(2i) = 10 4i + 15i 6i2 = 10 + 11i 6(1) = 10 + 11i + 6 = 16 + 11i. (iii) ( 1 )(5 2i) = ( 5 ) 1i = 2
2
5 2

i.

(iv) 2 + 3i = 2 3i. (v) |2 + 3i| = 22 + 32 = 4 + 9 = 13. (vi) Re(2 + 3i) = 2, Im(2 + 3i) = Im(2 + i3) = 3. For any complex number z = a+bi we dene z to be the complex number abi. It is clear that z + (z) = 0. We refer to z as the additive inverse of z. We now dene subtraction of complex numbers in the obvious way: w z = w + (z). It is easy to verify that, for any complex number z = a + bi, we have zz = z (a + bi)(a bi) = a2 + b2 = |z|2 . If z = 0, we have z = 1. Thus, we see that |z|2
1

z 1 z is the multiplicative inverse of z, so we can write = . 2 |z| z |z|2 From this we can perform division of complex numbers: If z = a + bi and w = c + di, w 1 z 1 =w =w = (wz) 2 . Rather than memorize this and if z = 0, then 2 z z |z| |z| formula, we note that this is equivalent to multiplying both the numerator and the denominator of the expression by the conjugate of the denominator. if z = 0, then Example 2 (i) (ii) 2 + 3i (2 + 3i)(5 + 2i) 4 + 19i 4 + 19i 4 19 = = 2 = = + i, 2 5 2i (5 2i)(5 + 2i) 5 +2 29 29 29 (3i)(1 2i) 3i 6i2 3i 6(1) 6 + 3i 6 3 3i = = 2 = = = + i. 1 + 2i (1 + 2i)(1 2i) 1 + 22 5 5 5 5

It can be shown that the usual rules of algebra hold for the complex numbers. That is, for all complex numbers z, w, and v, we have (v + w) + z = v + (w + z) (addition is associative) w + z = z + w (addition is commutative) z + 0 = z (0 is the identity element for addition) z + (z) = 0 (every complex number has an additive inverse) (vw)z = v(wz) (multiplication is associative) wz = zw (multiplication is commutative) z 1 = z (1 is the identity element for multiplication) z z = 1 if z = 0 (every nonzero complex number has a multiplicative |z|2 inverse)

v(w + z) = vw + vz (the distributive property) An algebraic system having these properties is known as a eld. Other familiar examples of elds are the eld of rational numbers, Q, and the eld of real numbers, R. Thus we speak of the eld of complex numbers. We will denote the eld of complex numbers by C. One of the most important properties of the eld of complex numbers is known as the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra: Every polynomial over the complex numbers (of degree 1 or higher) has a root. That is, if p(x) = a0 + a1 x + a2 x2 + + an xn , where n 1, and where a0 , a1 , a2 , . . ., an are given complex numbers with an = 0, then there is a complex number z such that p(z) = 0. While we will not discuss the properties of the eld of complex numbers in any more detail here, let us illustrate how one can nd square roots of complex numbers. (Note that this is the same as nding roots of polynomials of the form x2 a0 .)
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Example 3 (i) Find the square roots in C of 3i. Solution: Let z = x + yi. We want to determine what values x and y should have in order that z 2 = 3i. We have z 2 = (x + yi)(x + yi) = x2 + xyi + xyi + y 2 i2 = x2 + 2xyi + y 2 (1) = (x2 y 2 ) + 2xyi. The equation z 2 = 3i is thus equivalent to (x2 y 2 )+2xyi = 3i, which in turn is equivalent to the two equations x2 y 2 = 0 and 2xy = 3. From the rst of these, we see that x2 = y 2 , and so either x = y or x = y. If x = y, substituting into the second equation gives 2 = 3, or 2x 3 3 3 x2 = . This gives two possible values for x: x = and x = . In this 2 2 2 case, since y = x, we get the same values for y as for x. If y = x, substituting into the equation 2xy = 3 leads to (2x)(x) = 3, or 2x2 = 3, or x2 = 3 . 2 Since the square of any real number is nonnegative, there are no solutions of this 3 second kind. Therefore, we have two possible solutions for x and y: x = and 2 3 3 3 y = , or x = and y = . Since z = x + iy, this gives us two square 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 roots z of 3i: z = + i, or z = i. 2 2 2 2 (ii) Find the square roots in C of 5 + 12i. Solution: Let z = x + iy. We want to determine what values x and y should have in order that z 2 = 5 + 12i. As in the rst example we have z 2 = (x2 y 2 ) + 2xyi. The equation z 2 = 5 + 12i is thus equivalent to the two equations x2 y 2 = 5 6 and 2xy = 12. From the second of these equations we have y = . Substituting x 2 6 36 this into the rst equation, we get x2 = 5, or x2 2 = 5. This is x x 4 x 36 equivalent to = 5, or x4 36 = 5x2 . This last equation can be written x2 as x4 5x2 36 = 0. Setting r = x2 , this is equivalent to the quadratic equation r2 5r 36 = 0. Since r2 5r 36 = (r 9)(r + 4), the two possible values for r are r = 9 and r = 4. (Alternatively, we could have used the quadratic formula to nd these two roots for r.) Since r = x2 , we note that r cannot be negative, so the only possible value for r is 9. Since x2 = r, we see that x2 = 9, and so there are two possible values for x: x = 3 and x = 3. Substituting these 6 values into the formula y = , we nd the corresponding values of y: y = 2 and x y = 2. Thus we have the two square roots z: z = 3 + 2i and z = 3 2i. There is a very natural way to represent the complex number system geometrically. The complex number z = x + yi can be represented by the point P = (x, y) in the xy-coordinate system. In this way, the set of all complex numbers correponds to the set of all points in the xy-plane. The algebraic operations and many other features of complex numbers have useful geometrical interpretations. For example, |z| is the distance in the plane from the origin (0, 0) to the point corresponding to z. [We remark that some people actually prefer to dene a complex number to be an ordered
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pair of real numbers (x, y), for which addition and multiplication are then dened by: (x1 , y1 ) + (x2 , y2 ) = (x1 + x2 , y1 + y2 ) and (x1 , y1 ) (x2 , y2 ) = (x1 x2 y1 y2 , x1 y2 + x2 y1 ). We can then dene i to be the ordered pair (0, 1), and we can identify an ordered pair of the form (x, 0) as representing the real number x. See the diagram below.]
. y-axis .6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... . ..t z = a + bi b . . ... . . ... . . . ... . .. . . ... . . ... . . .... . . .. . . ... . . ... . . ... . . .. . . ... . . ... . . .... . . .. . . ... . . ... . . . .... |z| = a2 + b2 . .. . . ... . . ... . . .. . . ... . . ... . . ... . . .. . . . ...... . . ... . . ... . . .... .. . .. . .... ................................t.................................................................................................................................................................................................... ... . . . . . . . . a x-axis . . . . . . . . . . .

All of the concepts we have discussed in this course involving matrices can be easily extended to matrices in which the entries are allowed to be any complex numbers. We speak of matrices over C. Here are a few simple illustrations. Example 4 (i) 1 + 3i 0 2 5i 2+i 0 1 1 3i 0 2 i 0 2i + 2 i 0 1+i = 3 + 3i i , 2 1 + 6i 13 i i , 5 + 6i 6i

(ii)

5 3i 0 1 2 = 0 i = 6i 3 , 0 3 + 6i

(iii) 3i (iv)

5 + 2i 2 + i i 1 3i = 12 15i.

= (5 + 2i)(1 3i) (i)(2 + i) = (11 13i) (1 + 2i)

Problems
1. Calculate in C: (a) (1 + 2i) + (3 + 5i) 1 2 1 5 i (b) + i + 2 3 5 5 (c) (2 i) (1 + 3i) 1 1 2 (d) + i i 3 2 5 (e) (7 + 3i) (g) (1 + 2i)(3 + i) (h) (1 + i)(3 4i) 1 3 2 1 (i) i + i 2 2 3 5 3 5 i (j) 4 2 7 (k) 2 + 3i 2. Find each of the following: (a) | 1 + 2i| (b) 3 4 i 5 5 (c) | 4i| (d) | 2| (f) (8 4i) 3 (l) i 2 (m) (1 + i)(1 + i) (n) (3 2i)(3 2i) 1+i (o) 2 + 3i 1 + 3i (p) 4 2i 1 1i 2 3 (q) 1 1 + 3i 2 + 1i 4 2 3 4 3i (s) 2i 4 (t) 1+i (r)
1 3

3. Find the square root in C of each of the following: 5 (c) 21 20i 4 4. Find each of the following: (a) 9 (b) (a) 3i 2+i 1 4i 7i + 9 i 3 + 2i , 8 + 2i 5 + i

(b) (2 + i) (c) (d)

1+i 4i . 3 + 2i 5 + 2i

3 4 + 2i 5 + 6i , 7i 1 + i 3 + 2i 1+i 3 1 + i 2 + 4i 3 i 4i 5 + 2i , 2i 5 i 2 + 3i 3 i 4 3i

Answers
1. (a) 4 + 7i 3 19 (b) + i 10 15 (c) 1 4i 5 7 (d) + i 6 5 (e) 7 3i (f) 8 + 4i 2. (a) 5 (g) 1 + 7i (h) 7 i (i) 1 11 + i 30 10 20 (j) 6 i 7 (k) 2 3i 3 (l) + i 2 (m) 2 (n) 13 5 1 (o) i 13 13 7 1 (p) i 10 10 (c) 4 (c) (5 2i) (c) 8 12i 30 + 14i 11 + 29i 28 7i (q) 5 12 i 13 13 1 3 (r) i 2 8 3 (s) 2i 2 (t) 2 2i (d) 2

(b) 1 (b) 5i/2

3. (a) 3i 4. (a) (b)

6 + 3i 6 + 8i 16 + 7i 7 + 14i 1 + 3i 4 + 7i

12 2i 1 + 3i 9 2i 5 + 8i

(d) 13 4i