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I have an expression, not necessarily a polynomial, and want to take all the coefficients on whatever terms there are and replace them with the RootApproximant versions of them. For example,

a = 0.111803 z + 0.298142396

I would like the result of my replacement to look like

a = 1/(4 Sqrt[5]) z + 2/(3 Sqrt[5]).

I have tried to use some conditional replacement rules, but I cannot figure out how to take the coefficient and use it in a function, then put it back in front of the symbolic part. I have tried this

a /. t_ /; NumberQ[t] -> RootApproximant[t]

But this doesn't understand what the final t in the RootApproximant is.

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  • $\begingroup$ a /. r_Real :> RootApproximant[r] $\endgroup$
    – Bob Hanlon
    Jun 8 at 13:32

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The problem is that you're using a Rule, instead of a RuleDelayed, and so it's evaluating the RHS with the symbol t in as the argument of RootApproximant, which leads to the error message. Using RuleDelayed fixes it:

a /. t_ /; NumberQ[t] :> RootApproximant[t]
(* z*Root[1-10*#1+10*#1^2+<<5>>-6*#1^9+3*#1^10&,1,0] + ... *)
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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you! That has indeed solved the issue $\endgroup$
    – D. Brown
    Jun 8 at 4:58

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