Locus of a complex number

Half and Straight Line

Prepared by Dr. Orville Duffus

 Objective

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At the end of the class students should be able to:

1) find the set of all points z (locus of z) on the Argand Diagram such that z satisfies
conditions that result in a half and straight line respectively.

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 What is the Locus of a Complex Number?

Let z = x + iy and P(x, y) ≡ z. The locus of the point P is a set of points in the
complex plane which satisfies a given condition. The condition is generally the modulus or
Argument.

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 Determining the Locus of a Complex Number

Things to look for when identifying the locus:

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variable complex number z
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a fixed complex number
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a condition placed on the variable number. The condition is generally the modulus or
argument.

These factors dictate where the locus of complex would normally be.

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 Variable Complex Number

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A variable complex number is a variable that can take on the value of a complex
number. In basic algebra, the variables x and y generally stand for values of real
numbers. The algebra of complex number uses the complex variable z to represent a
number of the form a + bi.
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Variable complex numbers may be constrained to move along a certain path( or
“locus’) in the Argand Diagram. The paths would normally be straight lines or
circles.

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 Half-Line Locus Form

Let the “directed” straight line segment described from the fixed point representing a to
the moving point representing z be inclined at an angle θ to the positive direction
of the real axis.

Then,

arg(z − a) = θ.

This equation is satisfied by all of the values of z for which

the inclination of the directed line segment is genuinely θ.

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Activity

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Straight Line Locus Form

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