Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematical-methods-i-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021-resit/1/solution

The polar form is . Interpreting the fractional complex exponentiation as all its values, a candidate satisfies . The three roots of a complex number are
They have arguments , and , respectively. Since all have modulus one, their squared distances from in the complex plane are , giving
The last is strictly largest, so the required root of a complex number is
Restricting complex exponentiation to its principal value would give only ; the request to choose among roots requires all three values.
Figure 1.
The three values of the fractional complex power and their distances from z
. Details.

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