Solving equations

Using  MathMate you can find a root of the equation

expression = 0

There are two ways to solve an equation in MathMate. One is to turn Equation mode on. When you are in the Equation mode the equation icon appears to the left of the expression field.

In the equation mode you may solve the equation relative to only one of the parameters which is considered to be unknown. The other parameters should be initialized by the user.

To solve an equation:

  1. Turn the Equation mode on
  2. Input an expression, e.g. x^2-5*x+6
  3. In the corresponding entry fields enter the limits of the interval where the root is to be sought
  4. If the expression contains several identifiers mark one as variable and initialize the other parameters.
  5. Click Start or press Enter
If  MathMate detects only one parameter in the expression the latter is considered to be variable by default unless it is assigned some value. If none of the parameters is declared variable, and they all have been assigned values, the expression is assumed to be constant. You may solve the equation with the same expression again by marking another parameter name as unknown, or changing the interval.

If the given interval contains several roots the least of them is found.

The second way to solve an equation is to turn Calculator mode on and enter expression of the following type:

Root (a, b; x, expression)

Here a and b are the ends of the interval where the root is to be found, x is the variable name and expression means the same as above.

Computation accuracy

The value of the root is approximate, the relative error in the result is determined by the Precision setting. However the function value at the given point might be rather huge sometimes.

When MathMate displays the solution (root) it also shows the expression value at the root point in the Result window.

Sometimes the MathMate solution algorithm is unable to reach the given accuracy. It can happen if the function contains singularity near some point X. Also, the given interval may contain no solution at all. Then MathMate interrupts calculation and displays the message

Precision not reached, root not found

If this happens check whether the search interval is set correctly: it probably contains no solution at all.

See also