< User:Aleksander StosRevision as of 07:06, 13 August 2007 by imported>Aleksander Stos
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Complex numbers are defined as ordered pairs of reals:
Such pairs can be added and multiplied as follows
- addition:
- multiplication:
with the addition and the multiplication is the field of complex numbers.
To perform basic computations it is convenient to introduce the imaginary unit, i=(0,1).[1] It has the property
Any complex number can be written as (this is often called the algebraic form) and vice-versa. The numbers a and b are called the real part and the imaginary part of z, respectively. We denote and Notice that i makes the multiplication quite natural:
The square root of number in the denominator in the above formula is called the modulus of z and denoted by ,
We have for any two complex numbers and
- provided
For we define also , the conjugate, by Then we have
- provided
Complex numbers may be naturally represented on the complex plane, i.e. corresponds to the point (x,y), see the fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Graphical representation of a complex number and its conjugate
- ↑ in some applications it is denoted by j as well.