Complex multiplication

Drag the blue points to see the effect of multiplying various shapes by a complex number a. The checkboxes show different shapes. The "before" shape is filled in, and is traced by the blue point P. The "after" shape is not filled, and is traced by P'.

This applet shows the function f(z)=az, where a is fixed complex number, and the input z is any complex number in the plane.

In coordinates, a=b+ci and z=x+iy. This function can be computed by using the distributive property: az=(b+ci)(x+yi)=(bx-cy)+(cx+by)i. Geometrically, multiplying a point by a rotates the point or object by Arg(a) and stretches it out from the origin by a factor of |a|.

Susan Addington, Created with GeoGebra

Quadrivium

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