A85: Re: Factoring
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A85: Re: Factoring
>This isn't exactly related but I'm sure someone can help me so everyone
>else please don't mind this. I'm trying to factor an equation
>ax^2+bx+c=0 except b is a radical and not a integer. All of the programs
>I've seen first simplify the radical before factoring. Does anyone know
>of a calulator or computer program that leaves the radical intact so that
>the equation is as accurate as possible?
I'm not sure what you mean by "simplifying" the radical, but I'll try and
answer in both ways. If the program simply takes SqRt(8) and changes it to
2*SqRt(2), the problem is still left intact (in fact, in math it's proper to
always reduce/simplify the radical). If the calculator is obtaining a
decimal approximation, then you could use the following method (never seen
it in a program, but you probably could make one easily).
The quadratic formula allows you to obtain 100% accurate values to stick in
to (x - d)(x - e) where d and e are your two values found by the quadratic
formula:
d = ( -b + SqRt( b ^ 2 - 4ac)) / 2a
e = ( -b - SqRt( b ^ 2 - 4ac)) / 2a
Usually this formula is written with a plus or minus after the -b, but for a
calculator program, doing it twice would certainly be more feasible.