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Polar coordinates will help us understand complex numbers geometrically. On the one hand, the usual rectangular coordinates x and y specify a complex number z = x + yi by giving the distance x right and the distance y up. On the other hand, polar coordinates specify the same point z by saying how far r away from the origin 0, and the angle for the line from the origin to the point. We've already called the distance r the absolute value |z| of z, and we saw how the Pythagorean theorem gave relation between it and x and y:

Next, we need to deal with the angle . We'll follow the standard convention for specifying the angle . This convention takes the positive x-axis (our real axis) to be at angle 0°, the positive y-axis (our imaginary axis) at angle 90°, the negative x-axis angle 180°, and the negative y-axis at angle 270°. Also, 360° can be added or subtracted from any angle and the direction is not changes. So, 0°, 360°, 720°, and –360° all refer to the positive x-axis. Similarly, 270° and –90° both refer to the negative y-axis. A 45° angle runs along the line y = x, up to the right. And so forth.

A point z can be specified by either pair, the pair of rectangular coordinates, x and y, or the pair of polar coordinates, r, which is |z|, and , which is arg (z). Since either pair determines the point, each pair should determine the other pair. There should be four equations, connecting them, and so there are. The Pythagorean identity was mentioned above, but the others require trigonometry. From the same triangle we used for the Pythagorean theorem, we find the following three relations:

tan = y/x,   x = r cos , and   y = r sin .

Now, if we apply these relations to our complex number z = x + yi, then we get an alternate description for z

z	=	x + y
	=	r cos + i r sin
	=	r (cos + i sin )
	=	|z| (cos + i sin )

Note that the complex number cos  + i sin  has absolute value 1 since cos² + i sin² equals 1 for any angle . Thus, every complex number z is the product of a real number |z| and a complex number cos  + i sin .

We're almost to the point where we can prove the last unproved statement of the previous section on multiplication, namely, that arg(zw) = arg(z) + arg(w). As above, we take arg(z) to be , and now let arg(w) be . Then,

z = |z| (cos + i sin )

w = |w| (cos + i sin )

We need to show that arg(zw) is  + . In other words

zw = |zw| (cos ( + ) + i sin ( + ))

If we use the sum formulas for cosine and at one crucial point, we'll have it. Recall from trigonometry these sum formulas:

cos ( + ) = cos   cos  – sin  sin 

sin ( + ) = cos  sin  + sin  cos .

Now we're ready to show arguments add in the product zw.

zw	=	|z| (cos + i sin ) |w| (cos + i sin )
	=	|zw| (cos + i sin ) (cos + i sin )
	=	|zw| ((cos   cos  – sin  sin ) + i(cos  sin  + sin  cos ))
	=	|zw| (cos ( + ) + i sin ( + ))

Thus, arg(zw) is  + , as claimed.

Next section: Reciprocals, conjugation, and division

Previous section: Multiplication

Table of Contents

© 1999.
David E. Joyce
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Clark University
Worcester, MA 01610

Email: djoyce@clarku.edu

These pages are located at http://www.clarku.edu/~djoyce/complex/