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Calculator Tech Support =>
Technology & Calculator Open Topic
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2Xist
Newbie
Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 9
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 Posted: 20 Apr 2008 10:41:49 am Post subject: |
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Dear United TI,
Your last help to my son's tech support was very helpful and i thank you all for it  . however since he is very new to his TI-Titanum, my son and I unfortunalty have another stupid question. he was using the "slove(" function. and we inserted into the home screen (exactly what we typed in):
solve((-1/2)^x=1/4,X)
i mean.... the answer should be 2 right?
somehow he got a "false" answer
i was just wondering if it is my son's calculators problem or if if everyones calcucators.
Please try on your own calculators and post results
thank you all for reading our stupid question and please reply asap |
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DarkerLine
ceci n'est pas une |
Super Elite (Last Title)
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 8328
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| Posted: 20 Apr 2008 11:23:40 am Post subject: |
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The key to the problem is the message the calculator displays when you try to do that calculation, "WARNING: Non-real intermediate result."
Since solve( only deals with real numbers, and solving this equation has underlying complex number manipulation, the calculator has no way to find a solution.
There's no really great way to proceed, but one way to get the solution is to use cSolve() instead, which will use complex numbers to solve the equation. You'll then get a complicated expression that involves @n1, an arbitrary integer parameter. The solutions actually are all valid solutions, but you're most likely interested in the real one. So try some simple values for @n1, and sure enough, setting it equal to 1 yields x=2. |
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2Xist
Newbie
Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 9
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| Posted: 20 Apr 2008 11:37:36 am Post subject: |
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thank you Darkerline my son was freaking out becuase he thought his calculator was broken
so it is not broekn right? its just a "thing"
Last edited by Guest on 20 Apr 2008 11:39:13 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Taricorp
Member
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 188
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| Posted: 20 Apr 2008 02:51:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Just a 'thing', as you say. It's basically just a shortcoming in how it was programmed, or maybe even a 'feature'. |
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JoostinOnline
Active Member
Joined: 22 Aug 2007
Posts: 559
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| Posted: 23 Apr 2008 05:21:32 pm Post subject: |
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2Xist wrote: my son and I unfortunalty have another stupid question.[post="122633"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]
Haha, it wasn't a stupid question. Don't feel afraid to ask things like that. It was actually quite interesting and at first I couldn't figure out why it would give an error. |
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