In this section we’re going to take a look at a really nice way of quickly
computing integer powers and roots of complex numbers.
We’ll start with integer powers of
z
=
r
e
i
θ
since they are easy enough. If
n
is an integer then,
z
n
=
(
r
e
i
θ
)
n
=
r
n
e
i
n
θ
(1)
There really isn’t too much to do with powers other than working a quick example.
Example 1 Compute
(
3
+
3
i
)
5
.
Show Solution
So, there really isn’t too much to integer powers of a complex number.
Note that if
r
=
1
then we have,
z
n
=
(
e
i
θ
)
n
=
e
i
n
θ
and if we take the last two terms and convert to polar form we arrive at a formula
that is called de Moivre’s formula.
(
cos
θ
+
i
sin
θ
)
n
=
cos
(
n
θ
)
+
i
sin
(
n
θ
)
n
=
0
,
±
1
,
±
2
,
…
We now need to move onto computing roots of complex numbers. We’ll start this off
“simple” by finding the nth roots of unity. The nth roots of unity for
n
=
2
,
3
,
…
are the distinct solutions to the equation,
z
n
=
1
Clearly (hopefully)
z
=
1
is one of the solutions. We want to determine if there are any other solutions. To
do this we will use the fact from the previous sections that states that
z
1
=
z
2
if and only if
r
1
=
r
2
and
θ
2
=
θ
1
+
2
π
k
for some integer
k
(
i
.
e
.
k
=
0
,
±
1
,
±
2
,
…
)
So, let’s start by converting both sides of the equation to complex form and then
computing the power on the left side. Doing this gives,
(
r
e
i
θ
)
n
=
1
e
i
(
0
)
⇒
r
n
e
i
n
θ
=
1
e
i
(
0
)
So, according to the fact these will be equal provided,
r
n
=
1
n
θ
=
0
+
2
π
k
k
=
0
,
±
1
,
±
2
,
…
Now,
r
is a positive integer (by assumption of the exponential/polar form) and so solving
gives,
r
=
1
θ
=
2
π
k
n
k
=
0
,
±
1
,
±
2
,
…
The solutions to the equation are then,
z
=
exp
(
i
2
π
k
n
)
k
=
0
,
±
1
,
±
2
,
…
Recall from our discussion on the polar form (and hence the exponential form) that
these points will lie on the circle of radius
r
. So, our points will lie on the unit circle and they will be equally spaced on the
unit circle at every
2
π
n
radians. Note this also tells us that there are
n
distinct roots corresponding to
k
=
0
,
1
,
2
,
…
,
n
−
1
since we will get back to where we started once we reach
k
=
n
Therefore, there are
n
nth roots of unity and they are given by,
exp
(
i
2
π
k
n
)
=
cos
(
2
π
k
n
)
+
i
sin
(
2
π
k
n
)
k
=
0
,
1
,
2
,
…
,
n
−
1
(2)
There is a simpler notation that is often used to denote nth roots of unity. First
define,
ω
n
=
exp
(
i
2
π
n
)
(3)
then the nth roots of unity are,
ω
k
n
=
(
exp
(
i
2
π
n
)
)
k
=
exp
(
i
2
π
k
n
)
k
=
0
,
1
,
2
,
…
n
−
1
Or, more simply the nth roots of unity are,
1
,
ω
n
,
ω
2
n
,
…
,
ω
n
−
1
n
(4)
where
ω
n
is defined in
(3)
.
Example 2 Compute the nth roots of unity for
n
= 2, 3, and 4.
Show Solution
Now, let’s move on to more general roots. First let’s get some notation out of the
way. We’ll define
z
1
/
n
0
to be any number that will satisfy the equation
z
n
=
z
0
(5)
To find the values of
z
1
/
n
0
we’ll need to solve this equation and we can do that in the same way that we found
the nth roots of unity. So, if
r
0
=
|
z
0
|
and
θ
0
=
arg
z
0
(note
θ
0
can be any value of the argument, but we usually use the principal value) we have,
(
r
e
i
θ
)
n
=
r
0
e
i
θ
0
⇒
r
n
e
i
n
θ
=
r
0
e
i
θ
0
So, this tells us that,
r
=
n
√
r
0
θ
=
θ
0
n
+
2
π
k
n
k
=
0
,
±
1
,
±
2
,
…
The distinct solutions to
(5)
are then,
a
k
=
n
√
r
0
exp
(
i
(
θ
0
n
+
2
π
k
n
)
)
k
=
0
,
1
,
2
,
…
,
n
−
1
(6)
So, we can see that just as there were n nth roots of unity there are also n nth
roots of
z
0
.
Finally, we can again simplify the notation up a little. If
a
is any of the nth roots of
z
0
then all the roots can be written as,
a
,
a
ω
n
,
a
ω
2
n
,
…
,
,
a
ω
n
−
1
n
