Error in Algebraic Construction or Computational Translation?

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WhiskeyHammer
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I have an equation that I've been trying to solve. I manipulated it until I had a=f(d) and then did by best to put it into a format the computer recognizes. However when I went back to check the results against the unsimplified version of the equation, they didn't work out as they should have; which tells me I screwed up manipulating the equation to a=f(d) or when I translated it from paper to program*. Im stumped.:confused:

If someone could take a look at my work for errors Id appreciate the second set of eyes.

Algebraic Manipulation:
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Im fairly certain of my work until the fourth line, but if you need to see how I got there let me know.

Computational Form:
a=((-2)(x^5)(G)(q))/(((8)((D-x)^3)(n))-((G)(x^4)(q)(((tan(12))(pi)(D-x))+x)))
This is where I feel like the problem might be. I am relatively inexperienced using long equations in a computer setting.

*the third possibility being that I messed up checking the equation, but it seemed more prudent to start here
 
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haruspex said:
Early on, there's a part of the right of the form P-d. By the end it has become P+d. Look at the step between the second and third lines from the end.

Yup, that was it. I failed to reverse distribute properly.

That should fix all the math that comes after this equation, but it'll take me a couple of days to work my way back through it all again. Its always the fast simple math that messes me up over a long process.

Thanks guys!
 
WhiskeyHammer said:
I failed to reverse distribute properly.
Obvious, perhaps, but the way I track these things down is to plug in some values at the start and end of the manipulation and see if they agree. When I find a mismatch, I binary chop through the sequence of equations to find out where the value changed.