Chapter 11
Exploring Complex Numbers and Polar Coordinates
IN THIS CHAPTER
Working with complex numbers in operations and graphs
Switching between polar and rectangular coordinates
Graphing polar coordinates and equations
Once upon a time, mathematicians delved into their imaginations and invented a whole new set of numbers. They needed these numbers so they could finish some math problems — problems where the square root of a negative number occurred.
Fields like engineering, electricity, and quantum physics all use imaginary numbers in their everyday applications. An imaginary number is basically the square root of a negative number. The imaginary unit, denoted i, is the solution to the equation
.
A complex number can be represented in the form
, where a and b are real numbers and i denotes the imaginary unit. In the complex number
, a is called the real part and b is called the imaginary ...
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