System of Laplace Transforms (Question and Solution Included).

s3a
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I attached the question along with its solution.

Upon trying to find X(s), I get (s - 2)/(s^2 + 3s - 1) which is correct but after that I have to take the inverse Laplace transform and I don't know how to get the (-9/2 + sqrt(13)/2) and (-3/2 + sqrt(13)/2) parts and if someone could show me what the solution skipped, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks in advance!
 

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s3a said:
I attached the question along with its solution.

Upon trying to find X(s), I get (s - 2)/(s^2 + 3s - 1) which is correct but after that I have to take the inverse Laplace transform and I don't know how to get the (-9/2 + sqrt(13)/2) and (-3/2 + sqrt(13)/2) parts and if someone could show me what the solution skipped, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks in advance!

Probably partial fractions from the roots of s^2+3s-1.
 
s3a said:
I attached the question along with its solution.

Upon trying to find X(s), I get (s - 2)/(s^2 + 3s - 1) which is correct but after that I have to take the inverse Laplace transform and I don't know how to get the (-9/2 + sqrt(13)/2) and (-3/2 + sqrt(13)/2) parts and if someone could show me what the solution skipped, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks in advance!
Presumably you've inverted Laplace transforms before. Show us what you've tried.
 
I have done Laplace Transforms before and I think the partial fractions might be my problem.

For my first (logged) attempt, I tried a way without using partial fractions and got an answer but I may have made a mistake somewhere but I can't catch one. I anticipate a mistake since I was expected to use partial fractions and I get a seemingly different answer but I'm not sure if it's the same answer disguised in a different form.

For my second (logged) attempt, I used the quadratic formula since I was trying to use partial fractions and replicate the solution.

I'm attaching my work for what I mentioned above and would appreciate it if I can get the flaws of each attempt pointed out.
 

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In your first attempt, you made a sign error. When you completed the square, you should have gotten
$$s^2+3s-1 = s+3s+\left(\frac{3}{2}\right)^2 - \left(\frac{3}{2}\right)^2 - 1 = \left(s+\frac{3}{2}\right)^2 - \frac{13}{4}$$
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
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