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Finding Roots of Polynomials Using Mathcad: Polyroots

This document provides a procedure for using MathCad to find the roots of polynomial equations that arise in chemical engineering processes. It outlines writing the polynomial as a function, extracting the coefficients into a variable, and using the polyroots() function to obtain all roots. The user must then determine which roots make physical sense for the given problem. This method does not account for units.

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149 views1 page

Finding Roots of Polynomials Using Mathcad: Polyroots

This document provides a procedure for using MathCad to find the roots of polynomial equations that arise in chemical engineering processes. It outlines writing the polynomial as a function, extracting the coefficients into a variable, and using the polyroots() function to obtain all roots. The user must then determine which roots make physical sense for the given problem. This method does not account for units.

Uploaded by

partho143
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Finding Roots of Polynomials Using MathCad (Dr. Tom Co 9/27/2008) Introduction.

There are several applications in chemical engineering processes which result in a polynomial equation of an unknown variable. Some examples include the cubic equations of state such as Van der Waals, Redlich-Kwong and Peng-Robinson. Other situations result from geometrical relationships such as area or volume, or result from physical relationships such as radiation heat transfer. MathCad Procudure. 1. Write the polynomial as a function. 2. Extract the coefficients of the function into a variable. 3. Using the function polyroots( ) to obtain all the roots. Example:

Remarks: a) In finding the coefficients, use [ctrl shift period] to obtain a placeholder. Then type coeffs followed by comma and the unknown variable. A more general alternative, is to use [view] [toolbars] [symbolic] then select coeffs. This will allow for several symbolic manipulation entries, such as float (to set the number of significant figures in the result). b) The polyroots( ) function will yield all the roots. Thus, the user will need to determine which roots makes physical sense. c) This method does not allow for units.

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