Difference between revisions of "Imaginary part"
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Revision as of 23:29, 16 September 2006
Any complex number can be written in the form where is the imaginary unit and and are real numbers. Then the imaginary part of , usually denoted or , is just the value . Note in particular that the imaginary part of every complex number is real.
Geometrically, if a complex number is plotted in the complex plane, its imaginary part is its -coordinate (ordinate).
A complex number is real exactly when .
The function can also be defined in terms of the complex conjugate of : . (Recall that if , ).