Learning Resources

Focus B: Complex Numbers and their Graphs

Step C

When drawing position vectors, be sure to put an arrow indicating the head of the vector. Always draw the position vector from the origin to the ordered pair.

The length of the vector is called the absolute value, or modulus, of the complex number. This length is actually the distance from the origin to the ordered pair representing the complex number. Draw a vertical line from the ordered pair to the real axis to form a right triangle. Use the Pythagorean Theorem to find this distance.