Calculating angle between two complex numbers

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
2 replies · 9K views
polaris90
Messages
45
Reaction score
0
so I have z1 = 3 + j, z2 = -5 + 5j, z3 = z1+z2 = -2 + 6j

the question is, show that angle(z1) and angle(z1 + z2) differ by an integer multiple of pi/2.

I tried doing it this way
arctan(z1/z3), but then I always end up with a number that doesn't work. I know that arctan(x) cannot equal pi/2. Is there another way t rewrite it? I computed it using MATLAB and it gave me pi/2.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Perhaps you can utilize that pi/2 means the two complex numbers, when viewed as vectors in the complex plane, must be perpendicular to each other.