Practical 7: Symbolic Toolbox

> Exercise: Another Example of Solving Symbolic Equation

> Solve the general quadratic equation $ax^{2}+bx+c=0$ for any x by making the three coefficients $a, b, c$ and $x$ symbolic variables.

syms a b c x

> Instead of creating a new variable f for function, use the following command to solve directly:

soln = solve(a*x^2+b*x+c)

The above command doesn’t specify the variable to solve for. If it is not specified, the solve command will:

1) Solve for x by default or

2) Solve for the last alphabetical variable if there is no variable called x or

> Exercise

> Solve the equation again, replacing $a$ with $u$, $b$ with $v$, $c$ with $w$ and $x$ with $s$.

syms u v w s

...

> What is the answer this time?