Complex plane operations

The  exercise appears under the Precalculus Math Mission. This exercise explores operations on the complex plane.

Types of Problems
There is one type of problem in this exercise:


 * 1) Combine the complex numbers: This problem presents an expression that performs an operation on two complex numbers and an image of the complex plane. The student is asked to find the result from combining the complex numbers and plot it on the coordinate plane. Cpo1.png

Strategies
Knowledge of combining like terms and graphing on the complex plane are encouraged to ensure success on this exercise.
 * 1) Adding and subtracting complex numbers is done component-wise, in other words, real and imaginary parts are done separately.
 * 2) On the complex plane, the real values are along the x-axis and the imaginary valurs are along the y-axis.

Real-life Applications

 * 1) Imaginary numbers are used in chaos theory for predicting chaotic situations, like earthquakes and stock markets.
 * 2) Imaginary numbers can be used to model geometry on the Cartesian plane.
 * 3) The complex plane representation of complex numbers can be used to better understand polar coordinates.