How to get the argument of a complex number

Express the following complex numbers in polar form

a) z i
b) z  i

c) z  3 i

d) z  1  3i

e) z  2  2i
f) z  1 i

Solution
To convert a complex number in rectangular form to polar form, you need to
calculate the magnitude and the principal argument of the complex. The calculation
of the magnitude seems relatively straight forward, i.e., R  x 2  y 2 . On the other
hand, how can one calculate the argument θ, where      ? At this point,
please remember that the use of a calculator is strictly prohibited in this course so it
is important that in all your practice, you learn to get round without the use of a
calculator.
One thing to note is that before you calculate the argument, always draw a rough
sketch of the Argand diagram so that you immediately know in which quadrant the
argument lies. I will illustrate this on a question-by-question basis.

a) For z  i, the Argand diagram sketch will yield a point along the imaginary y-

axis to the point y=1 (0;1). From the sketch, you can tell that   . Thus
2
   
z  cos    i sin   .
2 2

b) For z  i, the sketch will yield a point along the imaginary axis to the point

y=-1 (0;-1). By inspection,    . Since the point is lying on the lower half of
2
the Argand diagram, you measure the angle clockwise and take the negative
value. The polar form immediately follows.

c) For z  3  i, as well as the rest of the questions in the above exercise, you
need to evaluate the argument by use of trig functions. In general, given

Open Rubric
 | y|
z  x  yi, we have   tan 1 , where θ is the reference angle. The angle
| x|
should lie in one of the quadrants given below. So which quadrant is the
correct one? If you are not careful, you may come to the erroneous conclusion
that z1  3  i and z2   3  i have the same argument since in both cases,
 1 
  tan 1   .
 3

Back to the question, we let

| y | | 1| 1
tan    
| x| 3 3
 1  
   tan 1  
 3 6

Now that we have the reference angle for z  3  i, the next step is to identify the
quadrant in which z lies in. Note that z  3  i   
3; 1 . Clearly, z lies in the 4th
quadrant (x is positive and y is negative). The argument  is thus calculated from

the reference angle as (see diagram below)      .
6

Calculation of the magnitude is rather straight forward and we get

 3   1  3  1  4  2. Therefore, converted to polar form, we have

2
R
2

     
z  3  i  2  cos     i sin     .
  6  6 

2
To complete the argument, we also illustrate how to convert z2   3  i to polar
 1  
form. As before,   tan 1   
  . But z2   3  i   3,1 . Thus you can see that
 3 6
z2 lies in the 2nd quadrant (x is negative and y is positive). To obtain the argument
 5
from the reference angle, we have          .
6 6

  5   5  
Finally, we have z2   3  i  2  cos    i sin   .
  6   6 

One last thing, how do you get tan 1  without using a calculator as per instruction?
An important fact to note is that in this course, you only deal with special angles. For
these special angles, you can evaluate the trig functions without the use of a
   
calculator. In fact, if you know the tan on 0, , , , and  , you can evaluate
6 4 3 2
the polar of any complex number that you will encounter in this course, guaranteed!
Trying to memorise them can work but is not the best option in my view. This is
because observe the following:

 1 
From the 2 right-angled triangles, we can deduce that tan  and tan  3.
6 3 3

Similarly, tan  1. In fact, nothing stops us from using the above triangles to
2
  
calculate the sin and cos of , and . Let’s look at one more example in which
3 4 6
we recap this material.

3
 1 
d) For z   3  i, we have   tan 1 
 . Since z   3  i   3; 1 , we
3 6

have z is in the 3rd quadrant (x is negative, y is negative). To obtain the
 5
argument from the reference angle, we have:           . We
6 6
  5   5  
therefore obtain the polar form as z   3  i  2  cos     i sin    .
  6   6 

NB: Questions (e) and (f) are left as exercises. You are welcome to share any other
problems you face on the discussion forum.