Mat104 Solutions to Problems on Complex Numbers from Old Exams

(1) Solve z
5
= 6i. Let z = r(cos + i sin ). Then z
5
= r
5
(cos 5 + i sin 5). This has modulus
r
5
and argument 5. We want this to match the complex number 6i which has modulus 6
and innitely many possible arguments, although all are of the form /2, /2 2, /2
4, /2 6, /2 8, /2 10, . . . . (We will see that we dont really lose anything if
we drop the in our list of possible arguments for 6i.) So we choose
r
5
= 6 and 5 =

2
or

2
+ 2 or

2
+ 4 or

2
+ 6 or

2
+ 8 or

2
+ 10 or . . .
In other words, in order to have z
5
= 6i we should take z of the form r(cos + i sin )
where
r =
5

6 and =

10
or

10
+
2
5
or

10
+
4
5
or

10
+
6
5
or

10
+
8
5
or

10
+
10
5
or . . .
Notice that there are only really 5 choices for theta. The sixth choice = /10 +10/5 =
/10+2 gives the same complex number as the rst choice, where we simply take = /10.
So there are exactly 5 solutions to z
5
= 6i corresponding to r =
5

6 and = /10, /10 +

2/5, /10 + 4/5, /10 + 6/5 and /10 + 8/5.
If we sketch these complex numbers we would see that they all lie on the circle of radius
5

6 1.43 and they are separated from each other by an angle of 2/5.
(2) Find the real part of (cos 0.7 + i sin 0.7)
53
. This is the same as
(e
0.7i
)
53
= e
530.7i
= e
37.1i
= cos(37.1) + i sin(37.1).
So the real part is simply cos(37.1).
(3) Find all complex numbers z in rectangular form such that (z 1)
4
= 1.
Solve w
4
= 1 rst and then z = w + 1. The complex number 1 has modulus 1
and argument of the form , 3, 5, 7, . . . . If w = r(cos + i sin ) then w
4
=
r
4
(cos 4 + i sin 4). So
r
4
= 1 and 4 = , 3, 5, 7, 9, . . .
So take r = 1 and =

4
or =
3
4
or =
5
4
or =
7
4
. This is a complete list of the
four distinct fourth roots of 1. (The next choice of theta in the sequence is nothing new
since 9/4 = /4 +2 which corresponds to the same complex number we get from taking
= /4.)
So
w = cos + i sin where =

4
or
3
4
or
5
4
or
7
4
1
2
and since z = w + 1 we have
z =
_
1 +

2
2
_
+ i

2
2
from =

4
or
z =
_
1

2
2
_
+ i

2
2
from =
3
4
or
z =
_
1

2
2
_
i

2
2
from =
5
4
or
z =
_
1 +

2
2
_
i

2
2
from =
7
4
(4) Write (

3 + i)
50
in polar and in Cartesian form. First put

3 + i into polar form. Its

modulus is
|

3 + i| =
_
(

3)
2
+ 1
2
=

4 = 2.
Its argument must satisfy cos =

3
2
and sin =
1
2
. So =

6
. Thus in polar form we
have
(

3 + i)
50
= (2e
i/6
)
50
= 2
50
e
50
6
i
.
This can be simplied since
50
6
= 8 +
2
6
. Thus
(

3 + i)
50
= 2
50
e

3
i
= 2
50
_
cos

3
+ i sin

3
_
So this is our answer in polar form. In Cartesian form we have
(

3 + i)
50
= 2
50
_
1
2
+ i

3
2
_
= 2
49
+ 2
49

3i.
(5) Find all fth roots of 32. As usual, let z = r(cos +i sin ). Then z
5
= r
5
(cos 5+i sin 5).
To match up with 32 which has modulus 32 = 2
5
and argument of the form +2k where
k can be any integer we take
r = 2 and =

5
,
3
5
,
5
5
,
7
5
, or
9
5
to get a complete list of the fth roots of 32. (As usual, note that the next angle in
the sequence would be 11/5 = /5 + 2 and so gives the same complex number as does
choosing = /5.)
(6) (a)
1
1 + i
+
1
1 i
=
1 i + 1 + i
(1 + i)(1 i)
=
2
1 i
2
=
2
2
= 1 = 1 + 0i.
(b)
e
2+i/3
= e
2
e
i/3
= e
2
_
cos

3
+ i sin

3
_
= e
2
_
1
2
+ i

3
2
_
=
e
2
2
+

3e
2
2
i.
3
(7) If z
3
= 8i then z has modulus
3

8 = 2 and its argument will be one third of the argument

of 8i. In other words, we should choose
=
1
3

2
=

6
or
1
3
_

2
+ 2
_
= =
5
6
or
1
3
_

2
+ 4
_
= =
3
2
Thus if we denote the three cube roots by z
1
,z
2
and z
3
we get
z
1
= 2e
i/6
= 2
_

3
2
+
1
2
i
_
=

3 + i
z
2
= 2e
i5/6
= 2
_

3
2
+
1
2
i
_
=

3 + i
z
3
= 2e
i3/2
= 2(i) = 2i.
(8) 1+i has modulus

2 and argument /4, /4+2, /4+4, . . . . So z will have modulus r so

that r
5
=

2, that is r =
10

2. The argument of z will be one fth of the argument of 1+i,

so the ve fth roots will correspond to = /20, /20 + 2/5, /20 + 4/5, /20 + 6/5
and /20 + 8/5.
(9) The imaginary part is 1/2 since
2 + i
3 i
=
2 + i
3 i
3 + i
3 + i
=
6 + 5i + i
2
9 i
2
=
5 + 5i
10
=
1
2
+
1
2
i
(10) Since 1 i has argument /4 and modulus

2 we know that
(1 i)
1999
=
_

2e
i/4
_
1999
= (

2)
1999
e
i(1999/4)
.
But 1999/4 = 499 +3/4 = 498 +7/4 and so 1999/4 = 498 7/4 = 500 +
/4. Therefore (1 i)
1999
is a complex number in the rst quadrant, with argument /4.
(11) e
iz
= 3i. Let z = a +ib. Then iz = ai b. So e
iz
= e
b
e
ai
. Thus e
iz
will have modulus e
b
and argument a. On the other hand, 3i has modulus 3 and argument /2 + 2k, where k
can be any integer. So there will be innitely many solutions, but we must choose a and b
so that e
b
= 3 and a = /2 + 2k with k an integer. So
z =
_

2
+ 2k
_
i ln 3, where k Z.
(12) Write (1 i)
100
as a + ib where a and b are real.
The complex number 1 i has modulus

2 and argument /4. That is

1 i =

2(cos(/4) + i sin(/4))
= (1 i)
100
= (

2)
100
(cos(100/4) + i sin(100/4))
= 2
50
(cos(25) + i sin(25))
= 2
50
(cos() + i sin()) = 2
50
(1 + 0i) = 2
50
4
(13) The real part of e
(5+12i)x
where x is real is e
5x
cos 12x since
e
(5+12i)x
= e
5x
e
12ix
= e
5x
(cos 12x + i sin 12x).
(14) z
6
= 8 where z = r(cos + i sin ). As usual, r
6
= 8 and is one sixth of the argument of
the complex number 8, that is is one sixth of an integer multiple of 2. Thus
r = (2
3
)
1/6
= 2
1/2
=

2 and = 0,
2
6
,
4
6
,
6
6
,
8
6
,
10
6
, . . . .
In other words we get the 6 distinct sixth roots of 8 if z = r(cos + i sin ) where
r =

2 and = 0,

3
,
2
3
, ,
4
3
or
5
3
(15) Summing this series is very similar to the problem of computing the sum

n=0
cos n
n!
, worked
out in detail as Example 4 on page 669 of Stein & Barcellos. In this case

n=0
_
cos n
n!
+ i
sin n
n!
_
=

n=0
e
in
n!
=

n=0
(e
i
)
n
n!
Since

n=0
cos n
n!
and

n=0
sin n
n!
both converge we can break this up as

n=0
_
cos n
n!
+ i
sin n
n!
_
=

n=0
cos n
n!
+ i

n=0
sin n
n!
From this we can conclude that

n=0
sin n
n!
is just the imaginary part of

n=0
(e
i
)
n
n!
.
Since e
z
=

n=0
z
n
n!
for any complex number z we have

n=0
(e
i
)
n
n!
= e
e
i
= e
cos +i sin
= e
cos
e
i sin
= e
cos
(cos(sin ) + i sin(sin ))
Taking the imaginary part we get

n=0
sin n
n!
= e
cos
sin(sin )
(16)

0
cos(n)
2
n
is the real part of a complex geometric series since
(e
i
)
n
= e
in
= cos n + i sin n and
_
e
i
2
_
n
=
cos n
2
n
+ i
sin n
2
n
Both

0
cos(n)
2
n
and

0
sin(n)
2
n
converge absolutely by comparison to the real geometric
series

1
2
n
. The same arguments we used for ordinary geometric series tell us that

0
r
n
converges to 1/(1 r) whenever |r| < 1, even if r is complex.
5
So

0
_
e
i
2
_
n
converges to 1/(1 e
i
/2) and all we have to do is nd the real part of
this complex number.
1
1 e
i
/2
=
1
1
_
cos
2
+ i
sin
2
_
=
2
(2 cos ) i sin
=
2
(2 cos ) i sin

_
(2 cos ) + i sin
(2 cos ) + i sin
_
=
4 2 cos + 2i sin
4 4 cos + cos
2
+ sin
2

=
4 2 cos + 2i sin
5 4 cos
Conclusion:

0
cos n
2
n
=
4 2 cos
5 4 cos
and

0
sin n
2
n
=
2 sin
5 4 cos