Engineering

Mathematics
Complex Numbers
 Learning Outcomes
• Recognise as standing for and be able to reduce powers of to or

• Recognise that all complex numbers are in the form

• Add, subtract and multiply complex numbers

• Find the complex conjugate of a complex number

• Divide complex numbers

• State the conditions for the equality of two complex numbers

• Draw complex numbers and recognize the parallelogram law of addition

• Convert a complex number from Cartesian to polar form and vice versa

• Write a complex number in its exponential form

The symbol
Solutions of quadratic equations using the QF
Solution of
Powers of
 Complex numbers
•The word ‘complex’ means either: (a) complicated, or (b) mixture

•A complex number is a mixture of a real number and an imaginary number.

•The symbol z is used to denote a complex number. E.g., .

Addition and subtraction of complex numbers
Multiplication of complex numbers
Division of complex numbers
In class exercise
Solution
Equal complex numbers
 Graphical representation of a complex number
Argand diagram
• In 1806, the French mathematician Jean-Robert Argand
devised a means of representing a complex number
using the same Cartesian coordinate system.

• This straight line is then the graphical representation of the

complex number and the plane it is plotted against is
referred to as the complex plane.
• The entire diagram is called an Argand diagram.
• The two axes are referred to as the real and imaginary axes
respectively but note that it is real numbers that are plotted
on both axes.
 In class exercise
Draw an Argand diagram to represent the complex numbers:

Note:
• that the end of each complex
number is plotted very much like
plotting x and y coordinates.
• the real part corresponds to the x-
value.
• the imaginary part corresponds to
the y-value.
Graphical addition of complex numbers
Polar form of a complex number
Polar form examples
Polar form examples
Modulus and the argument of a complex number
We have special names for the values of and :
Finding the argument of a complex number
Ways to express complex numbers
 Exponential form of a complex number
• Many functions can be expressed as series.
for example, and

• taking the series of and write for

Expressing a complex number in the form
How to deal with negative angles:
 Logarithms of a complex numbers
If we have

then