Recent content by AndyCav

I always think it's a funny one this one. Energy is in a sense 'just' a conserved quantity in any closed system, and is hence something we can think of as stuff, because it persists just as our notion of substance is basically just the notion of persistence. But of course what stuff 'really...

Well I'm trying to derive all solutions generally so I don't have x_0 to begin with. That's a fantastic idea about the change of variable to remove the even term though...! Cheers! I'll have dinner then have another try.

There's meant to be a sqaure root sign over that -c/a but it's not coming out on my screen. x_0 is of course just one solution of the cubic.

This is what I tried: f(x)=ax^3+bx^2+cx+d=0 is the general equation to solve, and intersects the y-axis a distance d from the origin. So, consider f(x-x_0)=g(x) where x_0 is one solution of f(x)=0. As we have shifted the original function along the x-axis the new function g(x) now passes...

x_{0}=\sqrt{\frac{-c}{a}} Ha ha, I appear to have found out!

PS Anyone know how some peole are making Latex code work in their messages?

I've been trying to derive general solutions for cubic roots, i.e. the general solutions of (will Latex just work?) $ax^3+bx^2+cx+d=0$ I do not want to be shown the solutions - but does anyone know what direction to go into achieve this? I thought I'd found solutions at one point but...