> From: Justin Harford
> Hi all
>
> I am doing calculations to find solution concentrations in
> chemical equilibria. Some of this involves work solving
> cubics, which I am finding yield a lot of imaginary numbers.
> Is there perhaps a way to make maxima only give the real
> roots of a cubic, or any other polynomial for that matter?
> They really just get in the way when dealing with real processes.
Justin,
Unfortunately life is not so simple. Some real roots of cubic
equations, expressed as radicals, can only be expressed using
complex valued expressions.
Google for "Casus irreducibilis".
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