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Course: Algebra (all content) > Unit 16
Lesson 10: Multiplying & dividing complex numbers in polar form- Dividing complex numbers: polar & exponential form
- Visualizing complex number multiplication
- Multiply & divide complex numbers in polar form
- Powers of complex numbers
- Complex number equations: x³=1
- Visualizing complex number powers
- Powers of complex numbers
- Complex number polar form review
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Powers of complex numbers
Sal simplifies the 20th power of a complex number given in polar form. Created by Sal Khan.
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- Where do I find the derivation of Euler's formula as I definitely don't remember e^itheta = cos etc etc! Have I missed this earlier on?(28 votes)
- It's confusing because this video appears in pre-calculus, before learning euler's formula.. I think I'm going to skip the complex number stuff for now until I hit it in calculus!(21 votes)
- Why not use de Moivre's Theorem instead? We could just do: (cos(2π/3)+i sin(2π))^20 =
(cos(40π/3)+ i sin (40π/3)) which seems a little faster.(24 votes)- yeah, i would do it that way, too, but i guess it's good to learn different methods(10 votes)
- I have used a calculator to caculate 2^i. It gave me this irational complex number of approximately .7692389014 + .6389612763i
I was expecting a rational complex number(One that can be expressed as the sum of 2 fractions) as the result since I was taking an integer to a non-irrational power.
How come when I take anything to the i power I get an irrational and in fact transcendental complex number when neither the base nor the exponent are irrational?
I mean I shouldn't get irrational = rational^rational unless it is a fractional exponent and ^i is not a fractional exponent, not even a complex one.(12 votes)- The properties involving i are a bit different. But,
a^i = cos(ln a)+i sin(ln a)
Therefore,
2^i = cos ( ln 2 ) + i sin( ln 2 )
(using radians, of course).(25 votes)
- Why did sal count the angle 4/3pi again from the beginning angle i.e 0 pi. He should be starting from 2/3 pi right?(6 votes)
- I dont know exactly at what time he said that or what time you mean.
But at aroundhe has 13 1/3 pi. This is the same as 12pi + 4/3 pi. 4:00
So with the 12pi you go around the circle 6 times (2pi = going around 1 time).
Then you have 4/3 pi left.(12 votes)
- Would i be correct in saying that; a scalar in front of the exponential form would increase the modulus of the complex number as well as increase the angle?(6 votes)
- If there is a scalar applied to a complex number raised to an exponent, the exponent would apply to both the scalar and the original number.(6 votes)
- how is any angle equal to 2 pi k + the angle?(4 votes)
- Those angles are not equal, but they put you in the same location in the plane.(6 votes)
- Is there any way to do this if the complex number is in rectangular form?(4 votes)
- Well sure, you can use binomial theorem and expand the power. For even powers, you can first square the complex number, and then take that result to half the original power which can be quick depending on the complex number and the exponent.
But using exponential form and de'Moivre is a lot easier and less time consuming.(5 votes)
- Hi, I am working on a problem with the following introduction:
Find the solution of the following equation whose argument is strictly between 180 degrees and 270 degrees.
z^5=-243i
z=?
There is an explanation regarding solving for theta, as follows:Remember that theta is strictly between 180 and 270 degrees. Therefore, we need to find the multiple of 72 degrees that is strictly within the range of 180−54 degrees = 126 degrees, and 270-54 degrees = 216 degrees. This multiple is simply 144 degree, so theta equals 198 degree.
To my mind it is not entirely clear that 216 isn't also a multiple of 72 in that range. Is this my mistake? Do "between" and "within" strictly mean greater and less than but not equal to?
Doing so still gives me z such that z^5 = -243i but it is apparently incorrect.(5 votes)- I'm running into the same issue. Did you figure this out?(3 votes)
- I don't understan, i wish they can redo this(5 votes)
- Perhaps this video will help, it made it crystal clear for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecjnVl1m7Nk&list=PLX2gX-ftPVXWVXPqhPytdlzwsomYqNuaJ&index=18(2 votes)
- At practice "Powers of complex number" i get answer 16(cos(pi/3)+isin(3/pi), but i can't raise radius to 16, max is 10.(3 votes)
- Your answer may be correct. There is actually an error in the question. I faced the same problem and have reported the mistake. The widget does not allow inputting a radius more than 10 whereas the actual radius in the answer is 16.
The bad part is that till the time you input the correct answer (which is not possible till the widget is fixed), it does not allow you to progress further in the exercise, so you are basically stuck!(3 votes)
Video transcript
I have the complex number
cosine of two pi over three, or two thirds pi, plus
i sine of two thirds pi and I'm going to raise
that to the 20th power. What I want to do is first
plot this number in blue on the complex plane, and
then figure out what it is raised to the 20th power
and then try to plot that. I encourage you to
pause this video and try this out on your own
before I work through it. Let's first focus on this
blue complex number over here. It's clearly written in polar form. The angle is two thirds pi
or two pi over three radians. And it's magnitude of this
complex number is clearly one. To make that a little clearer
you could write it in the pure polar form where you
have its magnitude out front. It's cosine of two over three pi plus i sine of two over three pi. You could write it just like that. When you look at that the
angle is two over three pi. That would get us, let's see. This is zero, this is pi, we're going to go two thirds of the way to pi. Each of these is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. Each of these is pi over
12 so we're going to go, two thirds of the way would
be eight pis over twelve. One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight. The way I was able to reason
through that is two thirds pi is the same thing as eight pi over twelve. Each of these segments is pi over 12 so I just counted eight of them. That's that number, but now let's try to raise it to the 20th power. To do that we're going
to use Euler's formula. Euler's formula, you might remember, tells us that e to the i theta is equal to cosine of theta plus i sine of theta. You see right over here
this is already written in that form where theta is two thirds pi. We can rewrite what we have in blue here as e to the two thirds pi i. Then of course we're raising
that to the 20th power. This simplifies things
dramatically because here if I tried to
multiply this thing times- If I had 20 of these things
and I multiplied them together that would get really, really,
really hairy really fast, but here I can just use
exponent properties. This is going to be the
same thing as e to the, if I raise something to
exponent and then raise that to an exponent I can just take
the product of the exponents. This is e to the 20 times
two over three pi i, which is equal to e to
the 40 over three pi i. Now this is this number
raised to the 20th power but this is an awfully
large angle right here. If we're thinking of 40 over three pi, let's just try to digest this. 40 over three pi, this
is the same thing as- Let's see, 40 divided
three is 13 and one third. This is the same thing as
13 and one third times pi. We know that going two pi radians gets you around the unit circle
once, so this is going over six times around
the unit circle to get- Or around, I should say,
not the unit circle, going six times around, going in circles in order to get to the point we want to. In order to simplify this a
little bit let me subtract the largest multiple of
two pi that I could figure, to get this in as small
of a form as possible. We know an angle, if we have
some angle it's equal to that angle plus some multiple of
two pi where k is any integer. k could also be negative, we could be subtracting a multiple of two pi. Let me subtract, let's see.
The largest multiple of two pi that I could subtract
here is going to be 12 pi. Let me subtract 12 pi from this. If I subtract 12 pi, I'll do it down here. 13 and one third pi minus 12 pi. Remember, I'm just trying to subtract the largest multiple of two pi that I can. 13 and one third minus
twelve is one and one third. That's going to be one and one third pi, or we could write it as four thirds pi. This complex number is going to be equivalent to e to the four thirds pi i. This makes it much simpler and
much easier for me to plot. Four thirds pi, or the same
thing as one and one third pi. This would be pi, and now
we have to just go another one third pi, and each of these are 12ths. If we go four 12ths pi. Sorry,
each of these are pi over 12, so we go four pi over 12. One, two, three, four
gets us right over there. This number raised to
the 20th power is this, which is equivalent to this, which we've plotted right over there. What if we wanted to take it
to, let's say the 21st power. Then we would increase
the angle by another two pi over three or eight pi over 12. We'd increase the angle by
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And we
would go right over there. How does this make conceptual sense? The number to the first
power was right over here, that was our original number
is blue right over here. If you raise it to the second power then you're increasing the
angle by two thirds pi, you're increasing the angle to go there. You raise it to the
third power, you increase the angle by two thirds
pi, you go over there. Fourth power you get back here. Fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th,
14th, 15th, 16th, 17, 18, 19, 20th power gets
us right over there.