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Author Topic: Mathematical problem  (Read 372 times)

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Offline Lestat

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Re: Mathematical problem
« Reply #15 on: March 15, 2013, 02:46:19 PM »
Wolfram? theres an equation solver online?

There was me thinking it was only good for making armor-piercing ammunition, lightbulb filaments, and really bloody heavy stuff. (wolfram being a foreign name for tungsten)       
Beyond the pale. Way, way beyond the pale.

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Offline Calavera

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Re: Mathematical problem
« Reply #16 on: March 16, 2013, 10:00:03 PM »
I think I may have solved it. Hold on. There's a neat trick.

Offline Calavera

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Re: Mathematical problem
« Reply #17 on: March 16, 2013, 11:08:51 PM »
Step 1 (rewriting original equation for clarification):
A = Pi * r * sqrt(r2 + h2)

Step 2 (squaring both sides is safe because both sides are definitely positive):
A2 = Pi2 * r2 * (r2 + h2)

Step 3 (switch both sides around and then subtract A2 from both sides to get a zero on the right side):
Pi2 * r2 * (r2 + h2) - A2 = 0

Step 4 (time for some expanding):
Pi2 * r4 + Pi2 * r2 * h2 - A2 = 0

Step 5 (neat trick: adjust the equation so that it resembles a quadratic equation with r as the main variable):
Pi2 * r2 * r2 + Pi2 * h2 * r * r - A2 = 0

Step 6 (now focusing on the discriminant and fixing it a bit to make life easier):
discriminant = Pi4 * h4 * r2 + 4 * Pi2 * r2 * A2

Step 7 (factoring the discriminant):
discriminant = Pi2 * r2 * (Pi2 * h4 + 4 * A2)

Step 8 (pull one of the factors of the discriminant out of the square root sign):
discriminant = Pi * r * sqrt(Pi2 * h4 + 4 * A2)

Step 9 (back to the bigger picture and solving for r using the infamous quadratic formula, rejecting the negative square root option because r must be positive):
r = [-(Pi2 * h2 * r) + discriminant] / (2 * Pi2 * r2)

Step 10 (focusing now on the numerator of the fraction on the right side and switching the addition operands around thanks to the valuable property of commutativity):
numerator = discriminant - Pi2 * h2 * r

Step 11 (replace discriminant with its expression value and factor out the common factors):
numerator = Pi * r * (sqrt(Pi2 * h4 + 4 * A2) - Pi * h2)

Step 12 (back to the overall equation and simplifying both the numerator and the denominator of the fraction on the right side of the equation):
r = (sqrt(Pi2 * h4 + 4 * A2) - Pi * h2) / (2 * Pi * r)

Step 13 (multiplying both sides by r to get rid of the r on the right side):
r2 = (sqrt(Pi2 * h4 + 4 * A2) - Pi * h2) / (2 * Pi)

Step 14 (square root both sides to get the solution):
r = sqrt[(sqrt(Pi2 * h4 + 4 * A2) - Pi * h2) / (2 * Pi)]

And voila! Am I the king of the universe or what?