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Solve

Usage
Notes
Further Examples

Polynomial equations in one variable

These are standard formulas for the solutions of normalized quadratic and cubic equations.

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Here are two simple equations of higher degree with solutions in terms of powers. They can be rewritten in terms of trigonometric functions that sometimes automatically reduce to radicals.

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For some equations, Mathematica produces the result in terms of Root objects (or algebraic numbers). The first argument of Root is an irreducible polynomial expressed as a pure function and the second argument identifies the choice of root.

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We can get a numerical result by applying N.

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This pulls all of the rules for x out of the result.

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Polynomial equations in more than one variable

Here we solve for x and y.

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In this case we eliminate y first and then solve for x.

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Here we solve two simultaneous algebraic equations. The spurious potential solution    is rejected.

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Here are three simultaneous algebraic equations; y and z must be paired up correctly with x.

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Here Solve returns an empty list, indicating no solution. Every potential solution forces an equation in the parameter z alone, so there are no generic solutions.

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We can get solutions by solving for z as well as x and y.

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We eliminate e, s, and t to get d in terms of the remaining variables.

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Verification is not done by default for polynomial systems. The purported solutions to this system are nowhere near correct.

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When there is numeric instability, setting VerifySolutions to True will take longer but will make the result more reliable.

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Radical equations

In radical equations, Solve discards parasite solutions.

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To see all candidate solutions, including parasites, set VerifySolutions to False.

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If you can be sure that zero denominators will not affect the solution set, clearing them often makes Solve faster.

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Suppressing messages

The equations that follow in the rest of this notebook come from various papers and from questions submitted by users.
Solve generates warning messages for many non-polynomial equations.

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To improve readability, we will now suppress warning messages about inverse functions. These messages will be turned back on at the end of this set of examples.

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Equations involving trigonometric or hyperbolic functions, or their inverses

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Equations involving exponentials and logarithms

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Equations or solutions that involve ProductLog

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This last example comes from a typo in a quadratic.

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Getting infinite solution sets for some equations

To each inverse of a trig or hyperbolic function Generalize adds n times the period of the corresponding trig or hyperbolic function. The second argument, n, indicates any integer.

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Log and ProductLog are treated similarly.

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Anything else is left alone.

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GeneralizedSolve tries to give an infinite solution set indexed by n for an equation or set of equations in the variables vars.

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This gives the generalized solution set for the equation.

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This checks the results.

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GeneralizedSolve fails when an inverse trigonometric function evaluates.

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This is in contrast to the case when the inverse trig function remains unevaluated.

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GeneralizedSolve can also give spurious solutions.

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Here the solutions for x are wrong when n is  .

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When Solve gives a wrong answer

Here is a function.

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There are  purported solutions.

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If Solve cannot determine that parametrized solutions are always incorrect, it will not remove them. The first solution is generally incorrect.

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Using TrigToExp gives the right answers by converting ff to an equivalent exponential form.

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There are  correct solutions.

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Turning messages back on

We will now turn the inverse function warning messages back on that were turned off earlier in this set of examples.

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