Solutions to Homework Set 1

1. As |i| = 1 and Arg (i) = /2, the absolute value of all fourth roots of i must be 1, and their argument has to be such that 4 = (/2) + 2k for some integer p. Solving this last equation, for , we get that = (/8) + (k/2) for some integer k . This gives us for dierent roots, for k = 0, 1, 2, 3, after which we will not get new roots since the new values of will be 2k larger than the old values of . This means that the equation x4 = i has four solutions, namely x1 = ei/8 , x2 = e5i/8 , x3 = e9i/8 x2 = e13i/8 . 2. We have x8 + 4 = x8 (4) = (x4 + 2i)(x4 2i) = 0. So the roots are the four roots of x4 = 2i and the four roots of x4 = 2i. These can be found just as in the previous problem, except that they all have absolute value 21/4 instead of 1. In particular, the four roots of x4 = 2i are the four roots of the previous problem multiplied by 21/4 , while the four roots of x4 = 2i are equal to the four roots of x4 = 2i times ei/4 , since the argument of 2i is more than that of 2i. There are several ways to write x8 + 4 as a product of polynomials with real coecients. We will discuss this in detail in class. For now, just note that x8 +4 = (x4 +2)2 4x4 = (x4 +2)2 (2x2 )2 = (x4 2x2 +2)(x4 +2x2 +2). 3. Let the product we are looking for be denoted by Pn . Then we claim that Pn = 1 if n is odd, and Pn = 1 if n is even. Indeed, if u is a root of unity, then so is 1/u. So if u shows up in our product, so does 1/u, so they cancel each other. So every term of our product cancel except the term that is equal to its own reciprocal, since in that case, u = 1/u does not show up one more time. The equation u = 1/u has two solutions, u = 1, and u = 1. However, if n is odd, then 1 is not a root of unity, so that does not show up in our product. So for odd n, the only term that does not cancel is 1, while for even n, the only terms that do not cancel are 1 and 1. 1

4. Let u be the 15th root of unity that has the smallest positive argument. Then all other roots of unity are of the form ui , where 1 i 15. Clearly, ui is a primitive 15th root of unity if and only if i is not divisible by 3 or 5. So we are looking for
15 5 3

u+u +u +u +u +u +u +u

11

13

14

=
i=1

(u )
j =1

3 j

(u5 )j +1 = 1.
j =1

Indeed, out of the three summation signs, the rst one sums all fteenth roots of unity, the second one sums all fth roots of unity, and the third sums all fth roots of unity. Each of these sums is 0 as we learned. The dierence between these three terms and the left-hand side is 1, since the rst sum contains 1 with a positive sign, but the second and third terms contain 1 with a negative sign. This completes the proof.