Algebra - Two Equations and Two Unknowns

January 6th, 2009
  • Given the two equations below: c1 = 0.5*c2*[A*(x-D)^2+B*(y-D)^2] + c3/c2*D*[A(x-D)+B(y-D)] ; and A(x-D) = B(y-D) All values other than x & y are constants. Can a solution for (x+y) be found in terms of constants only? Or, if any easier, a solution as [(x-D)+(y-D)]?


  • Hi bravelobster, I hope this is no school homework? I have seen several questions from you, and I wonder what your motivation is... It would be nice to know ;-) Please also have a look at point #34 in https://answers.google.com/answers/researcherguidelines.html Anyway. Given y = A/B(x-D)+D, your first equation can in fact be solved for x in dependency of constants only. The solution is ugly, it may simplify for x+y. So the 'short' answer to your question is 'YES' ;-)) I may be able to provide you a better visualization for a solution if you have values for the constants, as the equations correspond to nice geometric figures. Or I can simply paste you the solution for x (and/or x+y) as an answer. Please tell me how you want to proceed.


  • Hello philip_lynx-ga , The problem is work related. I'm not a student, although maybe I should consider returning to brush up on my feeble math skills. Unfortunately, I can not assign numerical values to the constants. c1 is an output from an equally ugly equation, and the other constants are dependant upon material parameters, each of which must be optimized based on the overall results. Pasting a solution for x+y would be most appreciated. Thanks very much...


  • Unfortunately I was not able to find a crisp and short solution here. Sometimes it is helpful to know a bit more about the background of a problem; sometimes there are problem-specific constraints that can simplify things. On the other hand, if you just need a formula to plug into a computer program, then what's below should help you. If you want I can send you some Java code that computes what I'm doing, in the form of a big function that takes all the constants as parameters. For simplicity though, the Java code will probably assume that solutions are real. But what's below might be clearer: Given the two equations below: (1) c1 = 0.5*c2*[A*(x-D)^2+B*(y-D)^2] + c3/c2*D*[A(x-D)+B(y-D)] and (2) A(x-D) = B(y-D) We assume that c2 is nonzero, since it's a denominator in the equation. We divide up the solution into 4 cases, depending on which of A and B are zero. We have to do this to make sure we don't divide by zero anywhere. Case 1: A is nonzero and B is nonzero. Let (3) z=A(x-D) Hence we have, (3') z=B(y-D) Then A*(x-D)^2 = A*(x-D)*(x-D) = z*(x-D) = z*z/A=z^2/A. Similarly, B*(y-D)^2= z^2/B. Hence, equation (1) becomes: c1=0.5*c2 * (1/A+1/B))*z^2+c3/c2*D*2*z Let (3) a=.5*c2* (1/A+1/B) and let (4) b=c3/c2*D*2 Then our equation becomes: a*z^2 + b*z - c1 = 0 Case 1.1: A is not equal to -B In this case, a is not equal to 0, so we can write: (5) z= (-b + sqrt(b^2 + 4a(c1)))/2a (5') z= (-b - sqrt(b^2 + 4a(c1)))/2a Now, x=z/A+D y=z/B+D Now you can just compute (6) x+y=((1/A+1/B)*z + 2*D) I am not actually writing out x+y in one big equation here, since for most cases, including input to a computer program, it's easier and safer to split up the equation using the temporary terms z, a, b and so on. Note that there may be two distinct possibilities for z, and thus in general for x+y, unless 4a(c1)=-b^2, in which case there is only one solution to the quadratic. Note that if 4a(c1) is smaller than -b^2 then both solutions will be complex nonreal. (You hadn't specified whether you want to limit to real solutions; if so, consider this case as "no solution"). Case 1.2: A=-B Here, a is zero and we have the linear equation: b*z - c1 = 0 This has solutions, by inspection, as follows: Case 1.2.1 If b is 0 and c1 is 0 all z are solutions Case 1.2.2 If b is 0 and c1 is nonzero, there are no solutions. Case 1.2.3 If b is nonzero, then z=(c1)/b . Just as in case 1.1, you can recover x+y from the value of z using equation (6). Case 2: A is nonzero and B is zero In this case, we must have x=D by equation (2). By inspection of equation 1, if c1 is 0 then solutions are x=D and all y; if c1 is nonzero, then there are no solutions. Case 3: A is zero and B is nonzero Similar to case 2, except solutions are y=D if c1 is 0, and no solutions otherwise. Case 4: A is zero and B is zero Here, if c1 is zero, all x,y are solutions; otherwise there are no solutions.







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