History Of Polynomial Equations
Quartic - Page Three


 

This is the resolvent cubic. Since an analytic solution to the cubic is known, we can immediately solve algebraically for one of the three solution of the resolvent cubic, say u1 and thus determine Q

with

Q therefore is linear in x and P is quadratic in x, so each term P+Q and P-Q is quadratic and can be solved using the quadratic formula, thus giving all four solutions to the original quartic.


1 - History
2 - Quadratics
3 - Cubic
4 - Quartic
5 - Quintic
6 - Appendix

Part Three: Solving The Quatic

 x4 +  x3 +  x2 +  x +   = 0


Step Two:


Step Three: Solutions:
x1 = 

x2 = 

x3 = 

x4 = 

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by thomas m. bösel @ www.vimagic.de for University Of Adelaide - History Of Mathematics 2002