Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A different field where accuracy is an issue is the area of numerical computing of integrals and the solution of differential equations. Examples are Simpson's rule, the Runge–Kutta method, and the Numerov algorithm for the Schrödinger equation. [10] Using Visual Basic for Applications, any of these methods can be implemented in Excel.
A method analogous to piece-wise linear approximation but using only arithmetic instead of algebraic equations, uses the multiplication tables in reverse: the square root of a number between 1 and 100 is between 1 and 10, so if we know 25 is a perfect square (5 × 5), and 36 is a perfect square (6 × 6), then the square root of a number greater than or equal to 25 but less than 36, begins with ...
A solution in radicals or algebraic solution is an expression of a solution of a polynomial equation that is algebraic, that is, relies only on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, raising to integer powers, and extraction of n th roots (square roots, cube roots, etc.). A well-known example is the quadratic formula
The general solution formula given above gives the solutions = + +. For any given choice of cube root and its conjugate, this contains nested radicals involving complex numbers, yet it is reducible (even though not obviously so) to one of the solutions 1, 2, or –3.
The square root of a positive integer is the product of the roots of its prime factors, because the square root of a product is the product of the square roots of the factors. Since p 2 k = p k , {\textstyle {\sqrt {p^{2k}}}=p^{k},} only roots of those primes having an odd power in the factorization are necessary.
A root of degree 2 is called a square root and a root of degree 3, a cube root. Roots of higher degree are referred by using ordinal numbers, as in fourth root, twentieth root, etc. The computation of an n th root is a root extraction. For example, 3 is a square root of 9, since 3 2 = 9, and −3 is also a square root of 9, since (−3) 2 = 9.
Casus irreducibilis (from Latin 'the irreducible case') is the name given by mathematicians of the 16th century to cubic equations that cannot be solved in terms of real radicals, that is to those equations such that the computation of the solutions cannot be reduced to the computation of square and cube roots.
Finding the root of a linear polynomial (degree one) is easy and needs only one division: the general equation + = has solution = /. For quadratic polynomials (degree two), the quadratic formula produces a solution, but its numerical evaluation may require some care for ensuring numerical stability .