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Lecture 11, Complex Arithmetic

There may be times when you have to do numerical computation
on complex values (scalars, vectors, or matrices).

If you are programming in Fortran, no problem, the types
complex and  complex*16 or double complex  are built in.
In Ada 95, the full set of complex arithmetic and functions
come with the compiler as packages. MatLab and Python use
complex as needed, automatically (e.g. output of FFT).

In other programming languages you need to know how to do
complex computation and how to choose the appropriate
numerical method.

Background:
A complex number is stored in the computer as an ordered pair
of floating point numbers, the real part and the imaginary part.
The floating point numbers may be single or double precision as
needed by the application. It is suggested that you use double
precision as the default.

These are called Cartesian coordinates. Polar coordinates are
seldom used for computation, yet, are usually made available by
a conversion function to magnitude and angle. Note that 
numerical analyst call the angle by the name "argument".

The naming convention depends on the programming language and
personal (or customer) choice.

Basic complex arithmetic is covered first and then complex
functions: sin, cos, tan, sinh, cosh, tanh, exp, log, sqrt, pow
are covered in the next lecture.

The simplest need for complex numbers is solving for the roots
of the polynomial equation  x^2 + 1 = 0 .
There must be exactly two roots and they are sqrt(-1) and
-sqrt(-1) that are named  "i"  and  "-i".

The quadratic equation for finding roots of a second order
polynomial should use the complex sqrt, even for real coefficients
a, b, and c, because the roots may be complex.

 given:  a x^2 + b x + c = 0  find the roots
 
               b +/- sqrt(b^2 - 4 a c)
 solution  x = -----------------------
                   2 a

 that computes complex roots if  4 a c > b^2
 Of course, the equation correctly computes the roots when
 a, b, and c  are complex numbers.

The basic complex arithmetic (including some functions for
the next lecture) are in Complex.java
The automatically generated documentation is Complex.html


The complex arithmetic and functions in C uses "cx" named functions
as shown in the header file complex.h
and the body complex.c
with a test program test_complex.c
with results test_complex_c.out

The built in Ada package generic_complex_types.ads
provides complex arithmetic. Note the many operator definitions.
The use of complex in Ada is shown in this small program:
complx.adb
Complex functions are provided by generic_complex_elementary_functions.ads


The use of complex in Fortran 95 is shown in this small program:
complx.f90


C++ has the STL class Complex and can be used as shown
test_complex.cpp


Cartesian Coordinates

Complex numbers define a plane and are typically Cartesian coordinates. Polar coordinates also define a plane in terms of radius, r and angle θ. x = r * cos(θ) r = sqrt(x*x+y*y) y = r * sin(θ) θ = arctan(y/x) or atan2 Other coordinate systems are:

Cylindrical Coordinates

Cylindrical coordinates in terms of radius r, angle θ and height z. x = r * cos(θ) r = sqrt(x*x+y*y) y = r * sin(θ) θ = arctan(y/x) or atan2 z = z z = z

Spherical Coordinates

Spherical coordinates in terms of radius r, angles θ and φ x = r * sin(φ) * cos(θ) r = sqrt(x*x+y*y+z*z) y = r * sin(φ) * sin(θ) θ = arctan(y/x) or atan2 z = r * cos(φ) φ = arctan(sqrt(x*x+y*y)/z)

Toroidal Coordinates 1

The five independent variables are a, σ, θ, φ and z0 denom = cosh(θ)-cos(σ) x = a * sinh(θ) * cos(φ) / denom y = a * sinh(θ) * sin(φ) / denom z = a * sin(σ) / denom optional + z0 -π < σ < π θ > 0 0 < φ < 2π a > 0 φ = arctan(y/x) temporaries r1 = sqrt(x^2 + y^2) d1 = sqrt((r1+a)^2 + z^2) d2 = sqrt((r1-a)^2 + z^2) θ = ln(d1/d2) σ = arccos((d1^2+d2^2-4*a^2)/(2*d1*d2))

Toroidal Coordinates 2

The five independent variables are r1, r2, θ, φ, and z0 x = (r1 + r2 * sin(φ)) * cos(θ) y = (r1 + r2 * sin(φ)) * sin(θ) z = r2 * cos(φ) Optional + z0 0 < θ < 2π 0 < φ < 2π r1 > 0 r2 > 0 θ = arctan(y/x) φ = arccos(z/r2) r1 = x/cos(θ) - r2*sin(φ) or r1 = y/sin(θ) - r2*sin(φ) no divide by zero A simple implementation in C is demonstrated in coordinate.c coordinate.out Beware of your choice of angle ranges when converting the above radians to degrees. Cartesian Cylindrical Spherical For Toroidal Coordinates 1: toroidal_coord.c toroidal_coord_c.out toro.dat toro.sh toro.plot For Toroidal Coordinates 2: toro2r.c toro2r_c.out toro2r.dat toro2r.sh toro2r.plot Then, for later, differential operators in three coordinate systems del and other operators
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