Write . Using the complex conjugate, the squared complex modulus on the left is . Squaring the equality and dividing by , which is nonzero, gives
Completing the square identifies the candidate circle:
Its centre is on the real axis and its radius is in the complex plane.
It remains to exclude extraneous points introduced by squaring. On this circle, , so the original right-hand side satisfies
Thus taking the nonnegative square root recovers the original equality at every point of the circle. This is a circle from an affine complex-modulus equation, with the sign check essential to the geometric conclusion.