Analysis of a

Analysis of a Complex Kind

Week 1

Complex Kind
Lecture 1: History of Complex Numbers

Petra Bonfert-Taylor

Lecture 1: History of Complex Numbers

Lecture 1: History of Complex Numbers Analysis of a Complex Kind P. Bonfert-Taylor 1 / 17

 Welcome
About me:
Petra Bonfert-Taylor
Born, raised and educated in Germany (Berlin).
Ph.D. 1996, Technical University of Berlin.
Postdoc at University of Michigan.
Professor at Wesleyan University since 1999.
 About this Course
Complex numbers, their geometry and algebra.
y

y z = x + iy

x x
 About this Course
c te d n e s s
e
Historical explorations

c
Riemannonn e
W e ie rs t ra s s
Cauchy
lim i op e n s e t
 About this Course
Complex dynamics: Mandelbrot set, Julia sets.
 About this Course
Complex functions, continuity, complex
differentiation.
 About this Course
Conformal mappings, Mbius transformations and
the Riemann mapping theorem.
 About this Course
Complex integration, Cauchy theory and
consequences. I
1 f (z)
f (a) = dz
2i z a
Fundamental Theorem of Algebra:

an z + an
n
1z
n 1
+ + a1 z + a0
= an (z z1 )(z z2 ) (z zn )
 About this Course
Power series representation of analytic functions,
Riemann hypothesis.
X1
1 mb e rs?
(s) = s prim
e n u

n=1
n
1 1 1
= s + s + s +
1 2 3
Brief History of Complex Numbers
Consider a quadratic equation

x2 = mx + b

Solutions are
r
m m2
x= +b
2 4
and represent intersection of y = x2 and y = mx + b .
 r

Solutions: .
m m2
x= +b
2 4

m2
What if 4 + b < 0 ?

In particular, x = 1 has no real solutions.

2
p
It is often argued that this led to i = 1.
But... Historically, no interest in non-real solutions
since the graphs of y = x and y = mx + b simply
2

dont intersect in that case.

 History
Cubic equations were the real reason. Consider
x3 = px + q
Represents intersection of y = x3 and y = px + q .

There always must be a solution.

 Solution to Cubic
Del Ferro (1465-1526) and Tartaglia (1499-1577),
followed by Cardano (1501-1576), showed that
x3 = px + q
has a solution given by
sr sr
3 q2 p3 q 3 q2 p3 q
x= +
4 27 2 4 27 2

Try it out for x3 = 6x + 20 !

 Bombellis Problem
About 30 years after the discovery of this formula,
Bombelli (1526-1572) considered the equation
x3 = 15x + 4

Plugging p = 15 and q = 4 into the formula yields

q q
3 p 3 p
x= 2+ 121 + 2 121

Bombelli had a wild thought...

 Bombellis Idea
Bombelli discovered that
q q
3 p p 3 p p
2+ 121 = 2 + 1 and 2 121 = 2 1

These clearly add up to 4, the desired solution.

Check it out:
p p p p
(2 + 1) = 2 +
3
121 and (2 1) = 2
3
121
 Check it out...
p
(2 + 1)3 =
 The Birth of Complex Analysis
Bombellis discovery is considered the Birth of
Complex Analysis.
It showed that perfectly real problems require
complex arithmetic for their solution.
Note: Need to be able to manipulate complex
numbers according to the same rules we are used
to from real numbers (distributive law, etc).
Well study this next.