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, ze^{i\pi/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 =\pi /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 $E= (a-1) + (b-1)i$.



I worked out the distance between $CD= \sqrt{17} $ so tried to do $\sqrt{(a-1)^{2} +(b-1)^{2} } =\sqrt{17} $
I then worked out that $tan^{-1}(1/4) $ to find the length of CD and added $\pi /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



$$
tan^{-1} (1/4) = 0.2498\\
=\pi/6 =0.7686\\
argE =0.7686\\
b/a = tan0.7686\\
=0.9667, 2.5375\\

b= 0.9667a, 2.5475a\\
(0.997b-1)^{2} + (b-1)^{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^{\pm i\pi/6} \\
w+ 1/2 +2\sqrt{3} +(3+1/2\sqrt{3})i\\

or 3/2 +2\sqrt{3} +(-1+1/2\sqrt{3})i\\
alternative \\
CE=(a,b), CD=(4,1)\\
CE*CD =17cos{\pi/6}, CE^{2} =17 \\
4a +b = 17\sqrt{3}/2, a^2 + b^2 =17 \\
Obtain~3-term~quadratic~in~one~variable~and~solve \\
(a,b) =(\sqrt{3} \pm 1/2 , 1/2 \sqrt{3} \mp 2) $$



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

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