On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 3:42 AM, Dave Angel <d...@davea.name> wrote: > On 01/01/2013 11:03 AM, Chris Angelico wrote: >> This isn't a Python question, it's an algebra one. I don't know what >> Z, S, and so on are, but for the most part, the basic rule of solving >> equations applies: Do the same thing to both sides and it's still >> true. Work on it until you can isolate SN on one side. > > Such a rule may not be able to solve an equation when there SN appears > more than once on the RHS, and where it's inside a transcental > function. I don't consider this an algebra problem, but a programming > problem.
It's a tad more complicated than your average equation, and I haven't the time now to prove the point by actually solving it, but every operation that I can see in that formula can be reversed. The hairy bit is that there are two references to SN, so it's going to be a bit messy to untangle, and might end up as a higher-order equation. But you're likely right that other forms of solver may be more useful here. Algebra definitely _could_ be the solution, but it isn't necessarily the best. ChrisA -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
