evaluating the powers of imaginary numbers?
please tell me how to do it.
Top 1 Answers
Favorite Answer
billybutsky is right in that the pattern repeats. Here is the way I was taught…
You take the power that the imaginary numebr is raised to. Then you divide that number by 4. If the remainder is:
0 —> 1
1 —> i
2 —> -1
3 —> -i
So, let try an example…
i^27
27 / 4 = 6 with a remainder of 3
since the remainder is 3, i^27 = -i
*remember, i = SQRT (-1)
I hope this helps
1