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Class Notes Second Class

This document provides a brief overview of complex numbers, including notation and basic operations, aimed at students with some prior exposure to the topic. It addresses the common gap in knowledge where students are expected to know more than basic arithmetic without sufficient instruction. The document includes a mathematical definition, a refresher on arithmetic, and explores advanced topics often overlooked in initial complex number education.

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Mia Matić
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23 views2 pages

Class Notes Second Class

This document provides a brief overview of complex numbers, including notation and basic operations, aimed at students with some prior exposure to the topic. It addresses the common gap in knowledge where students are expected to know more than basic arithmetic without sufficient instruction. The document includes a mathematical definition, a refresher on arithmetic, and explores advanced topics often overlooked in initial complex number education.

Uploaded by

Mia Matić
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CLASS NOTES

Complex Numbers Primer

Before I get started on this let me first make it clear that this document is not intended to teach you
everything there is to know about complex numbers. That is a subject that can (and does) take a whole
course to cover. The purpose of this document is to give you a brief overview of complex numbers,
notation associated with complex numbers, and some of the basic operations involving complex
numbers.

This document has been written with the assumption that you’ve seen complex numbers at some point
in the past, know (or at least knew at some point in time) that complex numbers can be solutions to
quadratic equations, know (or recall)

, and that you’ve seen how to do basic arithmetic with complex numbers. If you don’t remember how to
do arithmetic I will show an example or two to remind you how to do arithmetic, but I’m going to
assume that you don’t need more than that as a reminder.

For most students the assumptions I’ve made above about their exposure to complex numbers is the
extent of their exposure. Problems tend to arise however because most instructors seem to assume that
either students will see beyond this exposure in some later class or have already seen beyond this in
some earlier class. Students are then suddenly expected to know more than basic arithmetic of complex
numbers but often haven’t actually seen it anywhere and have to quickly pick it up on their own in order
to survive in the class.

That is the purpose of this document. We will go beyond the basics that most students have seen at
some point and show you some of the notation and operations involving complex numbers that many
students don’t ever see once they learn how to deal with complex numbers as solutions to quadratic
equations. We’ll also be seeing a slightly different way of looking at some of the basics that you probably
didn’t see when you were first introduced to complex numbers and proving some of the basic facts.

The first section is a more mathematical definition of complex numbers and is not really required for
understanding the remainder of the document. It is presented solely for those who might be interested.
The second section (arithmetic) is assumed to be mostly a review for those reading this document and
can be read if you need a quick refresher on how to do basic arithmetic with complex numbers. Also
included in this section is a more precise definition of subtraction and division than is normally given
when a person is first introduced to complex numbers. Again, understanding these definitions is not
required for the remainder of the document they are only presented so you can say you’ve seen it.

The remaining sections are the real point of this document and involve the topics that are typically not
taught when students are first exposed to complex numbers.

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