The real numbers are represented by the points on the real line (the x-axis) and the complex numbers by the points in the Euclidean plane. To each complex number there is associated a point in the plane with coordinates given by an ordered pair (x,y) of real numbers x and y.

We denote the point (x,y) by a new symbol x+iy where i²=-1 and combine these objects according to the ordinary rules of algebra. We identify the real number x with the point (x,0) and the complex number x+0i also with the point (x,0) so we see that the real numbers are in fact a subset of the complex numbers. In a similar way we identify the complex number i with the point (0,1).

The Arithmetic of Complex Numbers
Before we are happy that these 'objects' are called numbers we must see that it is possible to add, subtract, multiply and divide them and that they obey the rules of elementary algebra.

If x₁, y₁, x₂, and y₂ are any real numbers then, using the fact that i²=-1, we can can add, subtract and multiply complex numbers as follows:

(x1 + i y1) + (x2 + i y2) = (x1 + x2) +i(y1 + y2) (x1 + i y1) - (x2 + i y2) = (x1 - x2) +i(y1 - y2) (x1 + i y1)(x2 + i y2) = (x1 x2 + i2 y1 y2) + i(x1 y2 + x2 y1) = (x1 x2 - y1 y2) + i(x1 y2 + x2 y1)

The rule for division uses the fact that (x+i y)(x-i y)=x²+y² so, provided that x₂ and y₂ are not both zero, we can divide by x₂ +i y₂ as follows:

x1+i y1 x2+i y2 = (x1+i y1)(x2-i y2) (x2+i y2)(x2-i y2) = (x1 x2+y1 y2)+i(x2 y1-x1 y2) x22+y22

which is again of the form [real number + i×real number]. For example

3+i 1+2i = (3+i)(1-2i) 5 = 5-5i 5 = 1-i.

Complex Numbers as Vectors
The rules for adding and subtracting complex numbers, namely to add or subtract corresponding components, are exactly the same as the rules for adding and subtracting vectors. Complex numbers behave exactly like two dimensional vectors. Indeed real numbers are one dimensional vectors (on a line) and complex numbers are two dimensional vectors (in a plane).

The natural question to ask is 'could there be three dimensional numbers corresponding to three dimensional vectors or could there even be higher dimensional numbers?'. The answer is no. The only sets of numbers which satisfy all the usual rules of elementary algebra (that is satisfy the field axioms) have dimension one or two. We can define division of complex numbers but we cannot define division of three dimensional vectors. There are no three dimensional or higher dimensional numbers obeying all the rules of elementary algebra. While there are four dimensional numbers, called quaternions, multiplication of them is not commutative, that is, for some quaternions p and q we have p q ¹ q p.

Complex Numbers and Solutions of Polynomial Equations
Once we know about complex numbers, immediately we see that quadratic equations like x²+2x+5=0 have solutions

-2±Ö-16 2 = -1±2i.

What is more it is possible to prove the beautiful Fundamental Theorem of Algebra which states that not only do quadratic equations always have two roots, and cubic equations always have three roots, but every polynomial equation of degree n has exactly n roots.

The Modulus and Argument of a Complex Number
In defining the trigonometric functions sinq and cos q we associate the values of these functions with the coordinates of points on the unit circle (the circle of radius one unit and centre the origin). On this circle, if P is the point such that the angle between the x-axis and O P (measured in a counter-clockwise direction) is q, then the coordinates of P are given by x=cosq and y=sinq. When the ray O P has rotated through an angle of 360 degrees or 2p radians it retraces the same path and repeats the same values of cos q and sinq showing that these functions are periodic with period 2p.

Now there is a connection between the complex number z=x + i y and the trigonometric functions. If the point P corresponding to the complex number z lies on the circle with radius r, where the angle between the x-axis and the ray O P is q, then O P² = r² = x² + y² and z = r(cosq+ i sinq). The length O P, equal to Ö(x²+y²), is called the modulus of the complex number z and it is denoted by |z|. The angle q between O P and the x-axis, measured in a counter-clockwise direction, is called the argument of the complex number.

The distance between two points in the plane P and Q corresponding to the complex numbers z₁=(x₁,y₁) and z₂=(x₂,y₂) is given by the modulus of the vector P Q which is the same as the modulus of the complex number z₁ - z₂, namely:

|z1 - z2| = Ö((x1-x2)2 + (y1-y2)2)

.

If two points P and Q are equidistant from the origin, that is if they both lie on a circle of radius r with the origin as its centre, then the length of the arc of this circle between P and Q is given by r times the difference in their arguments measured in radians.

Functions of a complex variable provide an efficient way to work mathematically with transformations in the plane. Isometries are transformations that preserve angles and distances. Reflections, translations, rotations and glide reflections are isometries. All the isometries are combinations of reflections. For an introduction to this idea see Mirror Mirror and . ..on The Wall. To follow up the idea that all the isometries are combinations of reflections, and to see how functions of a complex variable are used to work with transformations, see Footprints.

The most important mathematical constants in one formula
We shall now explain the result

cosq+ isinq = eiq = exp(iq)

proved by Euler in 1748, which leads to the very striking formula

eip = -1.

We assume that the reader is familiar with the fact that the derivative of sinq with respect to q is cos q and the derivative of cosq is -sinq. Hence the derivative of cosq+ isinq is

-sinq+ icosq = i(cosq+ i sinq)

so that f(q) = cosq+ i sinq satisfies the differential equation

df(q) dq = if(q).    (1)

The exponential function is the function g(x) = exp(x) which satisfies the differential equation

dg(x) dx = g(x).

It follows that if g(q) = exp(iq) then

dg(q) dq = i g(q).    (2)

but this is exactly the same differential equation as equation (1) so the functions f and g can only differ by a constant as they have the same derivative. Putting q = 0 we see that f(0)=g(0)=1 so these two functions must in fact be identical. This proves that cosq+ i sinq = exp(iq). Then putting q equal to p we have cosp = -1 and sinp = 0, thus

eip = -1.

This proof uses differential equations and it is not just an exercise in solving them.