BASICS OF

SCIENTIFIC
PROGRAMMING
Computational Methods in Nuclear Physics
NS 1003
 BASICS OF SCIENTIFIC
PROGRAMMING

Simple operations using complex

numbers
Solve

𝑥2 - 4 = 0
Solving quadratics

𝑥2 - 4 = 0
𝑥2 = 4
x= ± 4
x=±2
Solve

𝑥2 + 1 = 0
Solving quadratics

𝑥2 + 1 = 0
𝑥 2 = -1 ;no real solutions

In order to solve this equation we define a new number,

i = −𝟏 or 𝒊𝟐 = -1 where i is an imaginary number.

Then; 𝑥 2 = -1
x = ± −1
x=±i

All complex numbers (z) can be written as; z = x + iy.

THE IMAGINARY NUMBER (I)

−1 = i  i 2 = −1

It's any
number
you can
imagine

7


i 2 = −1
i = i  i = −i
3 2

i = i  i = −1 −1 = 1
4 2 2

i = i  i = 1 i = i
5 4

...

8
USING I
 Now we can handle quantities that
occasionally show up in mathematical
solutions

−a = −1  a = i a
 What about

−49 −18
9
−49 −18

i.7

7i

10
COMPLEX NUMBERS

 Complex numbers consist of two separate parts:

real part
imaginary part

3
3 + 4i −6 + i 4.5 + i  2 6
2
 Visualization

• The Cartesian form of a complex number z is;

Z = x +yi
• Where x and y are both real numbers and i is
known as the imaginary unit

12
COMPLEX PLANE
y
Imaginary Axis

Real Axis x

13
FORM OF COMPLEX NUMBER
Imaginary Axis

( x, y )
z = x + iy r
z


Real Axis

14
COMPLEX NUMBERS IN PYTHON

 The basic imaginary unit is equal to the square root of -1.

 This is represented in python by letters j.
 Python has a built-in module that you can use for
mathematical tasks for complex numbers.
“cmath”.

 Complex numbers have their uses in many

applications related to mathematics and python
provides useful tools to handle and manipulate
them.
Example 1:

 An complex number is represented by “ x + yi “.

 Python converts the real numbers x and y into

complex using the function complex(x,y).
import cmath
x=5
y=3
z = complex(x,y)
print (z)
5+3j
 Example 2

Consider the complex number 3 + 2i

1. Use the python function complex to create the

complex number 3 + 2i
2. We can check its type, and confirm that it’s
a complex number:
 Floating-point
numbers can be used to create
complex numbers:

z = 3.14 + 2.71j
type(z)
3. The real part can be accessed.

x=3
y=2
z = complex(x,y);
print ("The real part of complex number is : ",end="")
print (z.real)
4. The imaginary part can be be accessed.

x=3
y=2
z = complex(x,y);

print ("The imaginary part of complex number is : ",end="")

print (z.imag)
Magnitude of the complex number

• The magnitude is the distance a complex number z lies from

the origin of the complex plane.

The magnitude of 3 + 2i is:

the square root of (32 + 22) = 13

|3 + 2i| = 131/2
5. When a complex number is passed as an argument
to abs() function, it returns the magnitude of the
complex number.
z = 3 + 2j
print('Absolute value of 3 + 2j is:', abs(z))
Argument/Phase of the complex number

• The argument of a complex number is the angle inclined from

the real axis in the direction of the complex number
represented on the complex plane
Find the argument of the complex number 2 + 2√3i.
6. Argument/ Phase of complex number

 Geometrically, the phase of a complex number is

the angle between the positive real axis and the
vector representing complex number.

 This is also known as argument of complex number.

 Phase is returned using phase(), which takes complex

number as argument.

 The range of phase lies from -pi to +pi.

Conjugate of the complex number

A complex conjugate of a complex number is another complex

number that has the same real part as the original complex
number and the imaginary part has the same magnitude but
opposite sign
7. Use the Python function .conjugate() to get
the complex conjugate of the
complex number.
ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS OF
COMPLEX NUMBERS

 We can plug complex numbers

into arithmetic expressions and call many of
the built-in functions on them.
1) Addition/subtraction: combine all real parts
together and all imaginary parts together

2) Multiplication: expand first and then combine

real and imaginary parts together

3) Division: to get a real number in the

denominator, we multiply the top and bottom of
the fraction by the complex conjugate

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Addition

 The sum of two or more complex numbers is

equivalent to adding their real and imaginary parts
component-wise:

z1 = 2 + 3j
z2 = 4 + 5j
z1 + z2
(6+8j)

 Python automatically promotes operands to

the complex data type when you add values of mixed
numeric types:

z = 2 + 3j
z + 7 # Add complex to integer
(9+3j)
Subtraction

 Subtractingcomplex numbers is analogous to

adding them, which means you can also
apply it element-wise:

z1 = 2 + 3j
z2 = 4 + 5j
z1 - z2
(-2-2j)
Multiplication

 The
product of two or more complex
numbers gets more interesting:

z1 = 2 + 3j
z2 = 4 + 5j
z1 * z2
(-7+22j)
Multiplication of Two Complex Numbers

37
Solve z1.z2

z1 = 2 + 3j
z2 = 4 + 5j
Division

z1 = 2 + 3j
z2 = 4 + 5j
DIVISION OF TWO COMPLEX NUMBERS
 Multiply numerator and denominator by the
conjugate of the denominator

3i 3i 5 + 2i
= 
5 − 2i 5 − 2i 5 + 2i
15i + 6i 2
=
25 − 4i 2
−6 + 15i 6 15
= =− + i
29 29 29

40
 z1 = 2 + 3j
z2 = 4 + 5j

Find z1/z2
 Note that complex numbers don’t
support floor division, also known as integer
division:

z1 // z2 ---------Error
z1 // 3.14 ---------Error
Example 3:

−16  −49

43
Exponentiation

 We can raise complex numbers to a power

using the binary exponentiation operator
(**) or the built-in pow().

z = 3 + 2j
Find 𝑧 2
z = 3 + 2j
z**2
(5+12j)

pow(z, 2)
(5+12j)
Example 4

 Let a=5+3i and b=2-7i

Perform the arithmetic operations with a

and b.
Example 5:

a = 3 + 2i and b = 4 + 5i.

Find the;

Magnitude of a
Angle of a
Real part of a
Imaginary part of a
Conjugate of a
𝑎
a+b, a –b, 𝑏, a×b, 𝑎2