What are the steps to solve this quartic equation?

[Michael_Light]

Homework Statement

Solve the equation http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/2523/msp662119eai22g9fe584bh.gif

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution

I tried to find the factor of the equation by substituting the factor of 9, that is +-1,+-3 and +-9 into the equation but none of them equal 0. I had no ideas how to solve it unless i get one of the roots of the equation... Can anyone give me any hints or tips? Thanks.

 

[Mentallic]

I'm afraid you're out of luck then. If this question was from school, maybe they were expecting you to approximate the roots, or there was a typo made somewhere, or they gave you a quadratic factor. If not the only other way is to use the quartic formula, and that's not something you want to do or what they would be expecting of you.

Using a calculator, I got roots $$x=3\pm \sqrt{6}$$. This information should be sufficient for you to find all the roots and factorize it into its real quadratic factors or complex linear factors.

 

[panqihg]

You can have a look at this page,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartic_equation"
Or using Mathematica,you can get four roots.