Math Is Fun Forum
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#1 2007-11-18 09:19:25
- tony123
- Member
- Registered: 2007-08-03
- Posts: 229
solve
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#2 2007-11-18 09:26:39
- yttrium88
- Member
- Registered: 2005-12-01
- Posts: 20
Re: solve
Have you tried anything yet?
What are some of the biggest obstacles to solving this equation in its current state?
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#3 2007-11-18 09:54:17
- JaneFairfax
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- Registered: 2007-02-23
- Posts: 6,868
Re: solve
Last edited by JaneFairfax (2007-11-18 10:27:16)
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#4 2007-11-18 10:22:37
- Krizalid
- Member
- Registered: 2007-03-09
- Posts: 51
Re: solve
Looks like solutions are contained on the interval
Nasty, eh.
Anyway, graph the equation, you'll see.
Last edited by Krizalid (2007-11-18 10:22:52)
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#5 2007-11-18 10:31:58
- JaneFairfax
- Member
- Registered: 2007-02-23
- Posts: 6,868
Re: solve
Done!
I squared both sides and simplified, getting a quintic polynomial equation. However, as Id already found by inspection that x = 1, 2 and 3 were solutions, I could take out these factors and have just a quadratic equation left. The quadratic equation is
This has no real roots. So (unless you want complex solutions) the only real solutions are x = 1, 2 and 3.
Last edited by JaneFairfax (2007-11-18 10:35:26)
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#6 2007-11-18 14:49:12
- Ricky
- Moderator
- Registered: 2005-12-04
- Posts: 3,791
Re: solve
Looks like solutions are contained on the interval...
As Jane has shown, things aren't always as the "look" in mathematics.
"In the real world, this would be a problem. But in mathematics, we can just define a place where this problem doesn't exist. So we'll go ahead and do that now..."
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