Scribd
Upload
533 views1 page

Triangle Inequality For Complex Numbers

The document provides a formal proof of the triangle inequality for complex numbers. The proof begins by using properties of the modulus and conjugate to show that (z + w)(z + w) equals |z|2 + 2Re(zw) + |w|2. It then combines this with the property that Re(z) ≤ |z| to show that |z + w|2 is less than or equal to (|z| + |w|)2. Taking the square root of both sides yields the desired result that |z + w| ≤ |z| + |w|.

Uploaded by

ArslanQureshi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
533 views1 page

Triangle Inequality For Complex Numbers

The document provides a formal proof of the triangle inequality for complex numbers. The proof begins by using properties of the modulus and conjugate to show that (z + w)(z + w) equals |z|2 + 2Re(zw) + |w|2. It then combines this with the property that Re(z) ≤ |z| to show that |z + w|2 is less than or equal to (|z| + |w|)2. Taking the square root of both sides yields the desired result that |z + w| ≤ |z| + |w|.

Uploaded by

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

Triangle inequality for complex numbers

This will be a sample formal proof write-up to use as a guide for doing
proof write-ups for the class. I went over a proof in the lecture for this
material, but a proof during a lecture looks different than a written up proof.
Various levels of details can be covered in a proof or omitted depending on
the intended audience. Advanced mathematicians omit many trivial or
obvious details since they have done so many proofs over and over again,
these details are very apparent to them and they understand how these proofs
go. Since this is a beginning level proof class I will expect to see more details
shown on the work for proofs.
Theorem 0.1 (triangle inequality for complex numbers). Let z, w C, the
following inequality is true:
|z + w| |z| + |w|.
Proof. By using standard properties of the modulus and conjugate we have
(z + w)(z + w) = |z + w|2
and
(z + w)(z + w) = (z + w)(z + w) = |z|2 + zw + zw + |w|2
= |z|2 + zw + zw + |w|2 = |z|2 + 2Re(zw) + |w|2 .
Combining these equations and using more basic properties of modulus (including Re(z) |z|) we have
|z + w|2 = |z|2 + 2Re(zw) + |w|2 |z|2 + 2|zw| + |w|2
= |z|2 + 2|z||w| + |w|2 = (|z| + |w|)2 .
It then follows that |z + w| |z| + |w|.

You might also like