Sunday, 20 March 2016

Need help with complex numbers on an Argand diagram problem

Going through some complex number work for A-Level Further Maths and I have come across a question that I have had a crack at but the mark scheme is very limited so doesn't look at the method I tried to use, and I don't really understand how they tried to approach it.



Question



In an Argand diagram, the complex numbers 0,z,zeiπ/6 are represented by the points O, A and B respectively.



i) Sketch a possible Argand diagram showing OAB. Show that the triangle is isoceles and state the size of the angle AOB.



(I was okay with this first bit)




ii) Complex numbers 1+i,5+2i are represented by C and D. Complex number w is represented by E such that CD=CE and angle DCE=π/6 .



Calculate possible values of w, giving answers exactly in form a+bi .



What I attempted to do was to firstly draw the triangle out again, as it was similar to the first part. I then tried to treat C as the origin so worked out that D=4+i and E=(a1)+(b1)i.



I worked out the distance between CD=17 so tried to do (a1)2+(b1)2=17
I then worked out that tan1(1/4) to find the length of CD and added π/6 to find the argument of E treating C as the origin. Then subbed in b/a=tanANS and tried to solve simultaneously with my last equation.



This gave me the wrong answer. Is this approach invalid? How would I otherwise go about this problem? Thanks in advance for any advice, I reallly appreciate it! :)




edit
complete workings



tan1(1/4)=0.2498=π/6=0.7686argE=0.7686b/a=tan0.7686=0.9667,2.5375b=0.9667a,2.5475a(0.997b1)2+(b1)2=17



gave up here as the question says exact answers and by this point it looks like something has probably gone wrong.



MARK SCHEME ANSWERS



w=(1+i)+((5+2i)(1+i))e±iπ/6w+1/2+23+(3+1/23)ior3/2+23+(1+1/23)ialternativeCE=(a,b),CD=(4,1)CECD=17cosπ/6,CE2=174a+b=173/2,a2+b2=17Obtain 3term quadratic in one variable and solve(a,b)=(3±1/2,1/232)



(also sorry about the mildly dodgy LaTex, I'm not that used to it yet! )

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