NOTES

Edited by Ed Scheinerman

A Simple Complex Analysis and an

Advanced Calculus Proof of the
Fundamental Theorem of Algebra
Anton R. Schep

It is hard not to have Ray Redheffers title of [2] as a reaction to another article on
the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra. In fact at least 28 notes have appeared in this
M ONTHLY about this theorem. In this note we present nevertheless two proofs of the
Fundamental Theorem of Algebra which do not seem to have been observed before and
which we think are worth recording. The first one uses Cauchys integral theorem and
is, in the authors opinion, as simple as the most popular complex analysis proof based
on Liouvilles theorem (see [3] for this and three other proofs using complex analysis).
Problem 5 on p. 126 of [1] gives a proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra based
on a complex contour integral that is similar to the one used here, but the details are
not quite the same. The second one considers the integral obtained by parameterizing
the contour integral from the first proof and uses only results from advanced calculus.
This proof is similar to the proof of [4], where the same ideas were used to prove the
nonemptiness of the spectrum of an element in a complex Banach algebra. There the
companion matrix of a polynomial was then used to derive the Fundamental Theorem
of Algebra.

Theorem (Fundamental Theorem of Algebra). Every polynomial of degree n 1

with complex coefficients has a zero in C.

Proof. Let p(z) = z n + an1 z n1 + + a1 z + a0 be a polynomial of degree n 1

and assume that p(z)  = 0 for all z C.

First Proof. By Cauchys integral theorem we have


dz 2i
=  = 0,
|z|=r zp(z) p(0)

where the circle is traversed counterclockwise. On the other hand

 
 dz 
  2r max 1 =
2
0 as r
  |z|=r |zp(z)| min|z|=r | p(z)|
|z|=r zp(z)

(since | p(z)| |z|n |(1 |an1 |/|z| |a0 |/|z n |)|), which is a contradiction.

Second Proof. Define g : [0, ) [0, 2] C by g(r, ) = 1/ p(r ei ). Then the

function g is continuous on [0, ) [0, 2] and has continuous partials on (0, )
g
(0, 2) satisfying = ir g
r
.

January 2009] NOTES 67

  2
Define now F : [0, ) C by F(r ) = 0 g(r, ) d. Then by Leibnizs rule for
differentiation under the integral sign we have for all r > 0
 

2
g 2
g
ir F (r ) = ir d = d = g(r, 2) g(r, 0) = 0.
0 r 0

Hence F  (r ) = 0 for all r > 0. This implies that F is constant on [0, ) with F(r ) =
F(0) = p(0)
2
 = 0. On the other hand | p(z)| as |z| implies that g(r, ) 0
as r uniformly in . Therefore F(r ) 0 as r , which is a contradiction.

REFERENCES

1. N. Levinson and R. M. Redheffer, Complex Variables, Holden-Day, San Francisco, CA, 1970.
2. R. M. Redheffer, What! Another note just on the fundamental theorem of algebra?, this M ONTHLY 71
(1964) 180185.
3. R. Remmert, Theory of Complex Functions (trans. R. B. Burckel), Graduate Texts in Mathematics, vol.
122, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1991.
4. D. Singh, The spectrum in a Banach algebra, this M ONTHLY 113 (2006) 756758.

Department of Mathematics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208

schep@math.sc.edu

Yet Another Proof of the Irrationality of 2
Natalia Casas Ferreno

The classical Greek proof of the irrationality of 2 is an example of a first-class
theorem, simple enough to be presented to a wide audience but deep in essence, as has
been written by the British
mathematician G. H. Hardy [7]. Nowadays many proofs
of the irrationality of 2 are known. Indeed, on the web page [3] fourteen different
proofs appear, and several have been published in this M ONTHLY (see [1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9]).
The aim of this note is to present a new proof of this fact. Let us consider the
linear mapping f : R R given by f (x) = ( 2 1)x as a one-dimensional discrete
dynamical system. For each point x0 R let us define its orbit O(x0 ) as the sequence
of iterates of f starting at x0 , namely
 n
O(x0 ) = 2 1 x0 : n {0} N .

Since 0 < 2 1 < 1it is clear that for each x0 R the orbit O(x0 ) converges to
zero. Now suppose that 2 = p/q is a rational number with p, q N. Then for all
n N it holds that

 n 2n/2 q, if n is even,
2 q=
2(n1)/2 p, if n is odd.

68 
c THE MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA [Monthly 116