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A simple quadratic equation cannot be solved?

Posted 4 years ago
POSTED BY: Werner Geiger
6 Replies

Even in the complex case the full solution can be pretty complicated, if you ask for the full solvability conditions;

eqn = (-4 + c1^2 + 2 c1*c2 + c2^2 + (s1 + s2)^2)/4 - 
   3/8*(a2*r1 + a1*r2)*(c2*s1 - c1*s2)*x + 
   9/64*(a1^2*r2^2*(c1^2 + s1^2) - 2*a1*a2*r1*r2)*x^2;
Echo[Reduce[eqn == 0, x]];

In the real case, the solvability conditions involve analyzing a semialgebraic variety of high degree in several variables.

It is true that when the generated conditions are too complicated they are hard to use in practice. Would you like Mathematica to return simply

Echo[Discriminant[eqn, x] >= 0];

as the condition for real solutions?

POSTED BY: Gianluca Gorni
POSTED BY: Gianluca Gorni
Posted 4 years ago
POSTED BY: Werner Geiger

A dirty workaround is:

  Solve[eqn == 0, x]

without Reals in Solve.

POSTED BY: Mariusz Iwaniuk
Posted 4 years ago
POSTED BY: Werner Geiger
POSTED BY: Michael Rogers
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