Definition:Complex Modulus

Definition
Let $z = a + i b$ be a complex number, where $a, b \in \R$.

Then the (complex) modulus of $z$ is written $\left\vert{z}\right\vert$ and is defined as:


 * $\left\vert{z}\right\vert := \sqrt {a^2 + b^2}$

The complex modulus is a real-valued function, and as when appropriate is referred to as the complex modulus function.

Real Number
Note that when $b = 0$, i.e. when $z$ is wholly real, this becomes $\left\vert{z}\right\vert = \sqrt{x^2} = \left\vert{x}\right\vert$, which is consistent with the definition of the absolute value of $x$.

Also known as
The complex modulus is also sometimes known as the absolute value, but usually that name is restricted to real numbers.

Also see

 * Modulus is Norm, showing that the modulus defines a norm on the field of complex numbers.


 * Modulus of Complex-Valued Function


 * Modulus in Terms of Conjugate, in which $\left\vert{z}\right\vert$ is defined without having to explicitly reference the components $a$ and $b$ within $z$ as follows:
 * $\left\vert{z}\right\vert := \sqrt {z \times \overline z}$
 * where $\overline z$ denotes the complex conjugate of $z$.