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From: dcrevier@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Dan Crevier)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Finding coefficents
Message-ID: <8156@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Date: 21 Aug 90 17:34:25 GMT
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711
Lines: 21

The following problem is for the 48SX:

I want to use Wayne Scotts poly root program to find the roots of the
polynomial, but I have the equation in the form of an algebraic, and the
polyroot program wants the the coefficents in a list.  So, what I want to do
is find the coefficients of the different terms.  I was thinking I could do
it by setting the variable (X) to 0, evaluating the algebraic to get the
constant term, subracting the constant term, dividing the algebraic by X,
using the algebra expand and collect commands(so that it won't have the /X
in there and get a divide by 0 errer), and then reevaluate the expression to
get the X term.  I would continue this to get all of the coefficients, and
then make a list.  This seems like it would be really slow, and I would have
to worry about purging and creating X at the right times.  Does anyone know
a better way to do this?

BTW, the reason I am doing this is because I have written a program to find
the characteristic polynomial of a matrix.  Using the polyroot program, you
get the Eigenvalues of the matrix.  I'll upload it once I get a serial cable
(which should be soon).

Dan