Short Stories

DOI10.1090/NOTI2384MaRDI QIDQ5029927zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors John Baez

Publication date 15 February 2022

Published in Notices of the American Mathematical Society (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.00110

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Zeros of polynomials, rational functions, and other analytic functions of one complex variable (e.g., zeros of functions with bounded Dirichlet integral) (30C15)

Abstract: The Gauss-Lucas theorem says that for any complex polynomial $P$, the roots of the derivative $P^{\prime }$ lie in the convex hull of the roots of $P$. In other words, the roots of $P^{\prime }$ lie inside the smallest convex subset of the complex plane containing all the roots of $P$. This theorem is not hard to prove, but is there an intuitive explanation? In fact there is, using physics -- or more precisely, electrostatics in 2-dimensional space

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