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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
An unresolved root, especially one using the radical symbol, is sometimes referred to as a surd [2] or a radical. [3] Any expression containing a radical, whether it is a square root, a cube root, or a higher root, is called a radical expression , and if it contains no transcendental functions or transcendental numbers it is called an algebraic ...
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.
The numbers a, b, and c are the coefficients of the equation and may be distinguished by respectively calling them, the quadratic coefficient, the linear coefficient and the constant coefficient or free term. [2] The values of x that satisfy the equation are called solutions of the equation, and roots or zeros of the quadratic function on its ...
The nested radicals in this solution cannot in general be simplified unless the cubic equation has at least one rational solution. Indeed, if the cubic has three irrational but real solutions, we have the casus irreducibilis, in which all three real solutions are written in terms of cube roots of complex numbers. On the other hand, consider the ...
Radical expression involving roots, also known as an nth root; Radical symbol (√), used to indicate the square root and other roots; Radical of an algebraic group, a concept in algebraic group theory; Radical of an ideal, an important concept in abstract algebra; Radical of a ring, an ideal of "bad" elements of a ring
Any generic method or algorithm for solving quadratic equations can be applied to an equation with symbolic coefficients and used to derive some closed-form expression equivalent to the quadratic formula. Alternative methods are sometimes simpler than completing the square, and may offer interesting insight into other areas of mathematics.
A small change of coefficients may induce a dramatic change of the roots, including the change of a real root into a complex root with a rather large imaginary part (see Wilkinson's polynomial). A consequence is that, for classical numeric root-finding algorithms , the problem of approximating the roots given the coefficients can be ill ...