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Complex Number

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Complex number

According to the fundamental theorem of algebra, all polynomial


equations with real or complex coefficients in a single variable have a
solution in complex numbers. In contrast, some polynomial equations
with real coefficients have no solution in real numbers. The 16th
century Italian mathematician Gerolamo Cardano is credited with
introducing complex numbers in his attempts to find solutions
to cubic equations

A complex number is a number that can be expressed in the form a + bi,


where a and b are real numbers, and i is a solution of the equation x2 =
−1. Because no real number satisfies this equation, i is called an imaginary
number. For the complex number a + bi, a is called the real part, and b is
called the imaginary part. Despite the historical nomenclature "imaginary",
complex numbers are regarded in the mathematical sciences as just as
"real" as the real numbers, and are fundamental in many aspects of the
scientific description of the natural world

Complex numbers allow solutions to certain equations that have no


solutions in real numbers. For example, the equation
has no real solution, since the square of a real number cannot be negative.
Complex numbers provide a solution to this problem. The idea is
to extend the real numbers with an indeterminate i (sometimes called
the imaginary unit) that is taken to satisfy the relation i2 = −1, so that
solutions to equations like the preceding one can be found. In this case the
solutions are −1 + 3i and −1 − 3i, as can be verified using the fact that i2 =
−1:
John Wallis (1616-1703) notes in his Algebra that negative numbers, so
long viewed with suspicion by mathematicians, had a perfectly good
physical explanation, based on a line with a zero mark, and positive
numbers being numbers at a distance from the zero point to the right,
where negative numbers are a distance to the left of zero. Also, he
made some progress at giving a geometric interpretation to √ −1.

Abraham de Moivre (1667-1754) left France to seek religious refuge in


London at eighteen years of age. There he befriended Newton. In 1698
he mentions that Newton knew, as early as 1676 of an equivalent
expression to what is today known as de Moivre’s theorem: (cos(θ) +
isin(θ))n = cos(nθ) + isin(nθ) where n is an integer. Apparently Newton
used this formula to compute the cubic roots that appear in Cardan
formulas, in the irreducible case. de Moivre knew and used the formula
that bears his name, as it is clear from his writings -although he did not
write it out explicitly.
L. Euler (1707-1783) introduced the notation i = √ −1 [3], and visualized
complex numbers as points with rectangular coordinates, but did not
give a satisfactory foundation for complex numbers. Euler used the
formula x + iy = r(cos θ + i sin θ), and visualized the roots of z n = 1 as
vertices of a regular polygon. He defined the complex exponential, and
proved the identity e iθ = cos θ + i sin θ
Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789-1857) initiated complex function theory in
an 1814 memoir submitted to the French Acad´emie des Sciences. The
term analytic function was not mentioned in his memoir, but the
concept is there. The memoir was published in 1825. Contour integrals
appear in the memoir, but this is not a first, apparently Poisson had a
1820 paper with a path not on the real line. Cauchy constructed the set
of complex numbers in 1847 as R[x]/(x 2 + 1)
“We repudiate the symbol √ −1, abandoning it without regret because
we do not know what this alleged symbolism signifies nor what
meaning to give to it.”

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