Copy of complex number operations
- Author:
- Emily Gorman, Tom Owsiak
In the following applet, you can check the boxes to show the sum, product, and ratio (or quotient) of the complex numbers z1 and z2. But first, I'd like you to leave those boxes unchecked, and focus just on the absolute value of the numbers.
How do we define the absolute value of a number?
If you were given a point on the Cartesian coordinate plane, one that was not on either axis, how would you calculate its distance from the origin?
Set z1 to be 8+6i and z2 to be -4+3i. Note their respective absolute values. What relationship do the coefficients a and b have to the absolute value in each case?
Based on your answer to the last question then, how is the absolute value of a complex number calculated? Does the quadrant in which the complex number falls affect the absolute value calculation? (In other words, would abs(3-i)=abs(-3+i)?)
You should now go to deltamath and complete the practice problems in the section "Finding the Modulus of a Complex Number".
Then try the problems in Section 5.4 of the textbook, on page 278: #64, 65, 66, 68, 70, 71, and 80-85 all