Mapping the territory

Can you devise a system for making sense of complex multiplication?
Exploring and noticing Working systematically Conjecturing and generalising Visualising and representing Reasoning, convincing and proving
Being curious Being resourceful Being resilient Being collaborative

Problem

This resource is part of our Adventures with Complex Numbers collection



This activity follows on from Complex Puzzle.

Use the Geogebra interactivity below to find some pairs of complex numbers whose product is a real number. What do you notice?

Can you explain it algebraically?

Use the Geogebra interactivity to find some pairs of complex numbers whose product is an imaginary number. What do you notice?

Can you explain it algebraically?

In general, what would you need to multiply by $a+bi$ to get a real number?  Or to get an imaginary number?

For a given complex number $a + bi$, what would you need to multiply by to get to another given number $x + yi$?

How does this relate to your geometric interpretation of multiplication of complex numbers?