Revision as of 13:19, 4 September 2008 by Phscheff (Talk)

(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Complex Number Division

Complex Number division is not as obvious as addition/subtraction or even multiplication.

Suppose one wanted to divide $ (2+3i)/(4+5i) $. The first step is to multiply the top and the bottom by the lower numbers complex conjugate, $ (4-5i) $. The result of the denominator should be a real number now and one can split the numerator with a common denominator.

$ ((2+3i)(4-5i))/((4+5i)(4-5i)) = (8-10i+12i+15)/(16-20i+20i+25) = (23+2i)/(41) = (23/41)+(2i/41) $

A General formula can then be determined as $ (a+ib)/(c+id)=(ac+bd+i(bc-ad))/(c2+d2) $

Alumni Liaison

Correspondence Chess Grandmaster and Purdue Alumni

Prof. Dan Fleetwood