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Niner
Lv 5
Niner asked in Science & MathematicsMathematics · 1 decade ago

What is the root of this quartic?

Of the four possible roots, I already know the approximation of the one I am interested in:

     ≈0.1729836581545961.

I need the symbolic (exact) expression for this root, probably containing square roots of square roots of rational expressions, something like:

     √(105√(167/8)

I get a couple steps past the depressed quartic in Ferrari's solution, but I have just never worked through this kind of exercise before, and I get lost.

So here is my depressed quartic:

     x^4 - 17x³ + (167/8)x² - (105/16)x + 153/256

In Excel, plugging in 0.1729836581545961 for x gives exactly 0. This is the only root I am interested in.

Thanks!

1 Answer

Relevance
  • JB
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    x=1/4, is an exact root, so it factors. The cubic factor, after multiplication to remove fractions, and set equal to zero, is:

    64x^3 - 1072x^2 + 1068x - 153 = 0

    Your number is a root of the above equation.

    Let u = (27791+99 i sqrt(1167))^(1/3)

    Then the exact value of the number you seek is:

    -(1/12)u - (461/6)(1/u) + 67/12 + (1/8) i sqrt(3) (2/3 u - (1844/3)(1/u))

    Although it may appear that this is an imaginary number, the imaginary part is exactly zero. A more accurate value for your number is: 0.17298365815459622909147316.

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