Visualize \(e^{i\theta}\)

\(e^{i\theta}\) is the points on unit circle, at angle \(\theta\), here is a visualization of how such circle is derived from the sum of power series:

Assume we have a function with the property of its derivative is equal to itself, just as \(\frac{d}{dx}e^x = e^x\), such function should have the form:

\[f(x) = e^x = 1 + x + \frac{x^2}{2!} + \frac{x^3}{3!} + ...\]

Expand to complex number \(i\theta\):

\[e^{i\theta} = 1 + i\theta + \frac{(i\theta)^2}{2!} + \frac{(i\theta)^3}{3!} + ...\]

Draw these complex numbers as vectors on complex plane, we have a end point for each \(\theta\), and a unit circle with all \(\theta\)s

move mouse horizontally to draw the circle

Complex number as a Power Series

Any point on C plane can be written as

\[a = x + iy = e^z = 1 + z + \frac{1}{2!}z^2 + \frac{1}{3!}z^3 + ...\]

Let’s first compute the value of z using complex logarithm:

\[z = log(a) = log(\vert a \vert) + i\arctan(a)\]

each term in the series is a vector, we add up these vectors to recover a in complex plane.

move mouse to draw the vectors

Euler’s formula

\(e^{iy} = \cos y + i \sin y\) corresponds to imagenary axis

Compound interest

\(e^{z} = e^{x+iy} = e^x e^{iy} = (1 + \frac{z}{n})^n\) if n is large

Inverse

\[z = r e^{i\theta}\] \[\frac{1}{z} = \frac{1}{r} e^{-i\theta}\]

The inverse can be seen the image of z wrt. the unit circle, the mapping has some interesting trajectories, draw some strokes below to explore…

move mouse to draw 1/z

function drawETheta(theta, iter, scale) {
  var itheta = new Complex(0, theta);
  var res = new Complex(1, 0).add(itheta);

  var path = new Path();
  path.strokeColor = 'black';

  path.add(origin);
  path.add(cord(new Complex(1, 0) * scale));

  var itheta_pow = new Complex(itheta);

  for (var i = 2; i < iter; i++) {
    path.add(cord(res * scale));
    itheta_pow = itheta_pow.multiply(itheta);
    res = res.add(itheta_pow.divide(factorial(i)));
    path.add(cord(res * scale));
  }
  return path;
}


function drawExpZ(z, iter) {
  // res = 1 + z
  var w = z.log();
  var res = new Complex(1 * scale, 0).add(w * scale);
  var w_pow = new Complex(w);

  var path = new Path();
  path.strokeColor = 'black';
  path.add(origin);
  path.add(cord(new Complex(1 * scale, 0)));

  for (var i = 2; i < iter; i++) {
    path.add(cord(res));

    w_pow = w_pow.multiply(w);
    res = res.add(w_pow.divide(factorial(i)) * scale);
    path.add(cord(res));
  }
  return path;
}