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There exists a general formula for finding the roots to quartic equations, provided the coefficient of the leading term is non-zero. However, since the general method is quite complex and susceptible to errors in execution, it is better to apply one of the special cases listed below if possible.
All quadratic equations have exactly two solutions in complex numbers (but they may be equal to each other), a category that includes real numbers, imaginary numbers, and sums of real and imaginary numbers. Complex numbers first arise in the teaching of quadratic equations and the quadratic formula. For example, the quadratic equation
The methods for solving equations generally depend on the type of equation, both the kind of expressions in the equation and the kind of values that may be assumed by the unknowns. The variety in types of equations is large, and so are the corresponding methods. Only a few specific types are mentioned below.
Abū Kāmil Shujā ibn Aslam (Egypt, 10th century) in particular was the first to accept irrational numbers (often in the form of a square root, cube root or fourth root) as solutions to quadratic equations or as coefficients in an equation. [30] The 9th century Indian mathematician Sridhara wrote down rules for solving quadratic equations. [31]
algebraically: more precisely, they can be expressed by a cubic formula involving the four coefficients, the four basic arithmetic operations, square roots, and cube roots. (This is also true of quadratic (second-degree) and quartic (fourth-degree) equations, but not for higher-degree equations, by the Abel–Ruffini theorem.) trigonometrically
John Herschel, Description of a machine for resolving by inspection certain important forms of transcendental equations, 1832. In applied mathematics, a transcendental equation is an equation over the real (or complex) numbers that is not algebraic, that is, if at least one of its sides describes a transcendental function. [1]
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
Despite many improvements these methods cannot solve most Diophantine equations. The difficulty of solving Diophantine equations is illustrated by Hilbert's tenth problem, which was set in 1900 by David Hilbert; it was to find an algorithm to determine whether a given polynomial Diophantine equation with integer coefficients has an integer ...