Here's a tool to calculate and visualize the nth roots of unity. I've taken the formula from Judson's Abstract Algebra, page 52 in the section on cyclic groups. Judson defines the nth roots of unity as the complex numbers \(z\) that satisfy the equation \(z^n=1\).
Further, Theorem 4.25 shows that for \(z^n=1\), the nth roots of unity are $$z=\operatorname{cis}\left(\frac{2k\pi}{n}\right)$$ for \(k=0,1,\dots,n-1\). That means for \(n\), there are \(n\) roots.
With the following tool, you can see the nth roots of unity on a unit circle. Select the number of roots using the number input below:
I want to thank Jonathan Carroll for mentioning my blog post. Please also read Jonathan's awesome blog post about calculating the nth roots of unity in R and Julia.