Questions on the functionality operating on polynomials

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26
votes
6answers
2k views

Finding real roots of negative numbers (for example, $\sqrt[3]{-8}$)

Say I want to quickly calculate $\sqrt[3]{-8}$, to which the most obvious solution is $-2$. When I input $\sqrt[3]{-8}$ or Power[-8, 3^-1], Mathematica gives the ...
14
votes
5answers
368 views

How do I reassign canonical ordering of symbols?

I have a big polynomial that evaluates to: $$A^2 e^2 \phi ^- \phi ^++A e \phi ^- \phi ^+ c_{2 w} g_Z+\frac{1}{2} A e g h W^- \phi ^+ +\ll13\gg,$$ which is supposed to represent some terms in the ...
12
votes
3answers
258 views

How to keep Collect[] result in order?

For example, Collect[(1 + x + Cos[s] x^2)^3, x] gives the result ...
11
votes
2answers
371 views

Surprises simplifying simple polynomials

I came across some somewhat surprising behavior of Simplify today, on something very simple. Let's take two cubic polynomials that we know have the same value: ...
11
votes
4answers
410 views

Is there a way to Collect[] for more than one symbol?

Oftentimes you find yourself looking for polynomials in multiple variables. Consider the following expression: a(x - y)^3 + b(x - y) + c(x - y) + d as you can ...
11
votes
1answer
290 views

Rearranging a Polynomial

In Mathematica 8.04 on Windows, I want to display a formula in standard textbook format. The formula is the variance of an $N$-security portfolio. For two securities it is: ...
10
votes
3answers
659 views

Computing the genus of an algebraic curve

How-to compute the genus of an algebraic curve in Mathematica ? In my case the algebraic curve is explicitly defined by a polynomial.
10
votes
2answers
372 views

Factorizing polynomials over fields other than $\mathbb{C}$

I'd like to take a polynomial in $\mathbb{Z}_5[x]$ of the form $ax^2+bx+c$ and factor it into irreducible polynomials. For example: Input... x^2+4 Output... ...
10
votes
1answer
279 views

Funny behaviour when plotting a polynomial of high degree and large coefficients

I am trying to plot a polynomial of degree 29 on the domain [0,1], with fairly large coefficients: ...
10
votes
2answers
189 views
10
votes
1answer
344 views

Find roots of polynomial in field extension $GF(2^n)$?

How can I find roots of polynomial in extension field $GF(2^n)$?
9
votes
4answers
318 views

How do I find the degree of a multivariable polynomial automatically?

I have a very simple question which appears not to have already been answered on this forum. Is there built-in functionality that returns the degree of a multivariable polynomial? For example if the ...
9
votes
3answers
199 views

Any efficient way to make complete homogeneous symmetric functions in Mathematica?

We do have elementary symmetric functions, SymmetricPolynomial[k, {x_1, ..., x_n}] . But I didn't find complete homogeneous symmetric functions. The induction ...
9
votes
1answer
285 views

Gröbner basis on a particular set of equations

This question is very similar in gist to equation solving with GroebnerBasis, but hopefully when I say that I make the system a little larger I mean little. I have ...
9
votes
2answers
90 views

What are Root objects with multiple polynomials?

In Mathematica 9 a new flavor of Root object with multiple polynomials was introduced. For example, ...
8
votes
4answers
299 views

“Evaluating” polynomials of functions (Symbols)

I want to implement the following type evaluation symbolically $$(f^2g + fg + g)(x) \to f(x)^2 g(x) + f(x) g(x) + g(x)$$ In general, on left hand side there is a polynomial in an arbitrary number of ...
7
votes
6answers
768 views

How do I replace a variable in a polynomial?

How do I substitue z^2->x in the following polynomial z^4+z^2+4? z^4+z^2+4 /. z^2->x ...
7
votes
3answers
446 views

Checking if the roots of a function are real

I'm trying to determine if the roots of a function are real. How would you do that? (In particular I'm interested in verifying that the roots of LegendreP[6, x] ...
7
votes
2answers
268 views

How to deduce a generator formula for a polynomial sequence?

Consider a polynomial sequence $\{p_n\}$ generated by some (simple) rule: $$ \begin{array}{l} p_1(x)=x \\ p_2(x)=2 x-x^2 \\ p_3(x)= x^3-3 x^2+3 x \\ p_4(x)=-x^4+4 x^3-6 x^2+4 x \\ p_5(x)= x^5-5 ...
7
votes
1answer
147 views

GroebnerBasis without specifying variables

All the examples in the Mathematica documentation specify that the syntax for the GroebnerBasis command is ...
6
votes
2answers
399 views

Why does Expand not work within a function?

I'm writing this fairly simple function: ...
6
votes
2answers
243 views

3D Plot: Number of Roots in x of a polynomial in x, a, b and c

I have a polynomial in four variables x,a,b and c. The number of roots of the polynomial in x depends of the choice of a, b and c. I would like to have a 3D-Plot with a, b and c on the axes, while the ...
6
votes
4answers
133 views

How to collect terms with positive powers in polynomial

I am trying to collect all terms with non-negative powers of $x$ in polynomials like $\frac{1}{x^2}\left(a x^2+x^{\pi }+x+z\right)^2$ First expand the polynomial ...
6
votes
4answers
2k views

Factoring polynomials to factors involving complex coefficients

I've run into some problems using Factor on polynomials with complex coefficient factors. Reading the documentation it looks like it only factors over the ...
6
votes
1answer
343 views

Finding the characteristic polynomial of a matrix modulus n

Given a square matrix, is it possible to calculate its characteristic polynomial modulo n? Unfortunately, this function ...
6
votes
0answers
57 views

Apart may use Padé method: what's that?

How does Apart work? The page tutorial/SomeNotesOnInternalImplementation#7441 says, "Apart ...
5
votes
3answers
460 views

What function can I use to evaluate $(x+y)^2$ to $x^2 + 2xy + y^2$?

What function can I use to evaluate $(x+y)^2$ to $x^2 + 2xy + y^2$? I want to evaluate It and I've tried to use the most obvious way: simply typing and evaluating $(x+y)^2$, But it gives me only ...
5
votes
5answers
296 views

Series expansion in terms of Hermite polynomials

I am trying to expand a polynomial in terms of orthogonal polynomials (in my case, Hermite). Maple has a nice built-in function for this, ChangeBasis. Is there a ...
5
votes
4answers
525 views

How to get exact roots of this polynomial?

The equation $$ 64x^7 -112x^5 -8x^4 +56x^3 +8x^2 -7x - 1 = 0 $$ has seven solutions $x = 1$, $x = -\dfrac{1}{2}$ and $x = \cos \dfrac{2n\pi}{11}$, where $n$ runs from $1$ to $5$. With ...
5
votes
1answer
131 views

How to express the original ideal elements in the Groebner basis?

Suppose I call GroebnerBasis[{f1, f2, ...}, {x1,x2, ...}] The output is a list {g1,g2,...} For each $g_j$, there should be ...
4
votes
3answers
384 views

First positive root

Simple question but problem with NSolve. I need help how to extract first positive root? For example eq=-70.5 + 450.33 x^2 - 25 x^4; NSolve[eq== 0, x] If I ...
4
votes
2answers
281 views

expanding a polynomial and collecting coefficients

I'm trying to expand the following polynomial ...
4
votes
2answers
190 views

How can I make the output from Solve look nice?

I have a problem with presenting solutions. Roots of 4th order polynomials are big expressions. Is there a way to present the roots, s2 and s3, in normal form with some substitutions? Maybe a way to ...
4
votes
1answer
326 views

Polynomial Approximation from Chebyshev coefficients

I would like to expand a function $f(r)$ in the domain $[0,R]$, around the points $r =0$, and $r = R$ in the following manner $f(r = 0) = \Sigma_{i=0,i = even}^{imax} f_i (r/R)^i$ and $f(r = R) = ...
4
votes
1answer
89 views

How can I prevent a polynomial from being simplified?

I'm having a problem with polynomials. Let's say I have a polynomial "2x^2 - 5x + 6 - 3x^2" .. How can I check that this expression is not simplified ? Additionally, I would like to locate the ...
4
votes
0answers
92 views

Computing Ehrhart's polynomial for a convex polytope

Is there a Mathematica implementation for computing the Ehrhart polynomial of a convex polytope which is specified either by its vertices or by a set of inequalities? I am interested in knowing this ...
4
votes
1answer
178 views

How do I get a two-term polynomial with a leading negative sign to display in the correct (i.e. textbook) order?

The first three expressions evaluate as expected and the polynomial is displayed in what I would call "textbook" form. The last expression, however, switches the order of terms. Mathematica employs ...
3
votes
7answers
217 views

Defining a function that completes the square given a quadratic polynomial expression

How can I write a function that would complete the square in a quadratic polynomial expression such that, for example, CompleteTheSquare[5 x^2 + 27 x - 5, x] ...
3
votes
3answers
212 views

Is it possible to use Composition for polynomial composition?

I want to do this: $P = (x^3+x)$ $Q = (x^2+1)$ $P \circ Q = P \circ (x^2+1) = (x^2+1)^3+(x^2+1) = x^6+3x^4+4x^2+2$ I used Composition for testing if that could ...
3
votes
2answers
79 views

How to define a polynomial/function from an array of coefficients?

I have the coefficients of my desired polynomial in an array CoefArr (I'm new to mathematica, so I think of everything as arrays, it is actually a list I believe) starting with the constant at index ...
3
votes
1answer
158 views

Small Issue with Chebyshev Derivative Appoximation

I am trying to get approximate the derivative of a function from its Chebyshev expansion. I start out with the following random function ...
3
votes
2answers
110 views

Better use of Mathematica's PolynomialReduce[]?

I've been using scPhiDecomp[expr_]:= PolynomialReduce[expr, {x^2-y^2,2 x y}, {x,y}] which works great on ...
3
votes
3answers
988 views

Get polynomial interpolation formula

I'm attempting to get a polynomial interpolation formula out of Mathematica but I am absolutely lost. I stared out using ...
3
votes
1answer
155 views

How to do the polynomial stuff over finite fields extensions fast?

This question is raised from the problem of package FiniteFields being very slow (please, see the corresponding question): I have had an evidence that Mathematica ...
2
votes
2answers
82 views

Evaluating Polynomials at Grid Points

I am continuing my quest on B-splines. The code below builds a 5x5 matrix out of B-splines, using the BSplineBasis[] routine. I now want to evaluate the polynomials that are stored in each matrix ...
2
votes
3answers
146 views

Symbolic manipulation of functional form

I have a functional polynomial expression of the form: ...
2
votes
2answers
167 views

Calculating Taylor polynomial of an implicit function given by an equation

I'd like to write a procedure that will take an equation: F(x,y,z) = 0 chosen variable: x a point: ...
2
votes
1answer
117 views

Implementation of Decompose

I'm curious as to how Decompose works so I decided to use Trace with the option ...
2
votes
2answers
161 views

How to find solutions that yield of root of unity?

I have a polynomial with coefficients that are integer polynomials in another (complex) variable. For example: 1 + (1 - v^2) #1 + (-3 - v^2) #1^2 + #1^3 & I ...
2
votes
1answer
92 views

Is there any way to force Mathematica to collect a symbol in a polynomial?

Let's say that I have a polynomial like this: a + b + c Is there any way that I can get Mathematica to transform it to: ...

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