Concept

Argument of a Complex Number

The argument of a complex number , denoted by is the angle between the positive real axis and the line connecting origin to the point in the complex plane.
Point (a,b) that represents a complex number z = a + bi is plotted in the complex plane. A vector is drawn from the origin to point (a,b) such that its angle with positive axis is the argument of z.
The measure of angle is the arctangent of the ratio of the coordinate to the coordinate of the point.
This measure is typically expressed using radians. For example, consider a complex number Its argument can be found by calculating
The argument of is

Why

Deriving the Formula

The formula for the argument of a complex number comes from the polar representation on a complex plane. In this representation, a complex number is located using its modulus and argument

Point (a,b) that represents a complex number z = a + bi is plotted in the complex plane. A vector is drawn from the origin to point (a,b) such that its angle with positive axis is the argument of z.
Using trigonometry, the tangent of the angle is given by the ratio
By applying the arctangent function to both sides you can find the expression for argument
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