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I have an equation which I want to rearrange so one variable is on the left side by itself.

Normally, I would do this with basic algebra and identities.

However, is it possible to use Mathematica to do this for me, automatically?

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  • $\begingroup$ Hello Gravitas, and welcome to Mathematica.SE. Thanks for the Accept. $\endgroup$
    – Mr.Wizard
    Aug 21, 2012 at 8:30

2 Answers 2

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That is an extremely general question, but usually, yes.
The commonly used functions used are Solve and Reduce:

Reduce[x^2 + a x + 1 == 0, a]
x != 0 && a == (-1 - x^2)/x

The documentation pages linked above contain many examples. Please read these, and if necessary narrow your question to a specific difficulty or problem.

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Since the question was asked, AddSides etc *Sides have been added to Mathematica for the purpose.

Simplify makes some things automatically.

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