Mathmatical Logic Fails Me

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Lukeje

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Feb 6, 2008
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BaronAsh said:
Glefistus said:
You show 3 equations at the top, what happened to the third?
The third one doesn't really make a difference, if the first two have no solution.


To Handless Zombie I'm in 11th grade and we don't have matrices.
Basically, you can write your three equations as a matrix
(2 -4 -1) (x) = (10)
(4 -8 -2).(y) = (16)
(3+1 1 ) (z) = (12)

or
  • M.r = k
...thus, to find r, we may multiply on the left by M[sup]-1[/sup] (the inverse of M, effectively "1/M") so that we get
  • r = M[sup]-1[/sup]k
Of course, this only works if M[sup]-1[/sup] exists, which it doesn't in your case because the determinant is zero.
 

theklng

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May 1, 2008
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BaronAsh said:
Today for home work I was assigned a few extremely hard problems, One of these was:

Solve Each System Of Equations

2x-4y-z=10
4x-8y-2z=16
3x+y+z=12

____________________________________________


If I'm not mistaken it is logically impossible, as 2x-4y-z=10 multiplied by -2 is -4x+8y+2z=-20.

Now let's do some elimination.
-4x+8y+2z=-20
4x-8y-2z=16
______________
0=-4

(I'm sure -4 does not equal 0)

Thoughts and or help would be nice.
EDIT:
it's a sign fault - you add the z in the first equation instead of subtracting it, resulting in faulty logic.
 

Livinitlargeinabin

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Sep 24, 2008
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Monkeyman8 said:
(snip)
thus

x = 23/4

y = 9/4

z = -33/4
Substitute your answers back in

2(23/4)-4(9/4)-(-33/4)= 10.75 <--(not 10)

4(23/4)-8(9/4)-2(-33/4)= 21.5 <--(not 16)

3(23/4)-(9/4)-(-33/4)=23.25 <--(not 12)

"I've got a baaaaad feeling about this..."
 

hamster mk 4

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Apr 29, 2008
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Monkeyman8 said:
4x - 8y - 2(2x - 4y -10) = 16

I've substituted the above equation for Z now expand

4x - 8y -4x - 8y - 20 = 16
Actualy

4x - 8y - 2(2x - 4y -10) = 16

simplifies to

4x - 8y - 4x + 8y + 20 = 16
or
20 = 16
after you reduce

your error was multiplying -4y by essentialy a -2
4x - 8y - 2(2x - 4y -10) = 16

4x - 8y + (-2*2)x +(-4*-2)y +(-10*-2) = 16

4x - 8y - 4x + 8y + 20 = 16
 

savandicus

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Jun 5, 2008
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Monkeyman8 said:
x = 23/4

y = 9/4

z = -33/4
putting those values into the first equation gives

(46 - 36 + 33)/4 = 10 Or 10.75 = 10

As for the solution, either two things is wrong OP. You've written down the equations wrong or the question is wrong, using all 3 equations together does not give an answer because they do not intersect at a single point.

Equation 1 and 2 are parallel and therefore will never have any value for x y and z that is true for both equations becuase they never touch.
 

VZLANemesis

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Jan 29, 2009
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BaronAsh said:
Today for home work I was assigned a few extremely hard problems, One of these was:

Solve Each System Of Equations

2x-4y-z=10
4x-8y-2z=16
3x+y+z=12

____________________________________________


If I'm not mistaken it is logically impossible, as 2x-4y-z=10 multiplied by -2 is -4x+8y+2z=-20.

Now let's do some elimination.
-4x+8y+2z=-20
4x-8y-2z=16
______________
0=-4

(I'm sure -4 does not equal 0)

Thoughts and or help would be nice.
Who the hell told you that's the way you solve that type of problems...
 

cobra_ky

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Nov 20, 2008
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Monkeyman8 said:
x = 23/4

y = 9/4

z = -33/4
all that work and you didn't bother checking your answer?

3x+y+z = 12

3(23/4) + 9/4 + -33/4 = 69/4 + 9/4 -33/4 = 45/4 = 11.25

I dropped it into a linear solver and there doesn't seem to be a solution. Either the OP copied the system wrong or the book screwed up.

EDIT: Epic triple ninja. -.-
 

BaronAsh

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Feb 6, 2008
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VZLANemesis said:
Who the hell told you that's the way you solve that type of problems...
My Math Teacher Mrs. May

http://www.marion.k12.fl.us/schools/fhs/faculty/index.cfm?username=mayr
 

Jakiller2

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Aug 19, 2009
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It's no solution. You're welcome. And when you eliminate and get 0=0 that is Infinitely Many Solutions.
 

Nimbus

Token Irish Guy
Oct 22, 2008
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What the hell is with all these long-ass posts involving matricies? It can be disproved by very basic algebra.

Look:


Equation 1:

2x-4y-z=10
2(2x-4y-z)=2(10)
4x-8y-2z=20

Equation 2:

4x-8y-2z=16


Solution:

4x-8y-2z=20

but

4x-8y-2z=16

16=/=20, therefore equations are not simultaneous and no answer can be found for any variables.
 

Nutcase

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Dec 3, 2008
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LOL @ random people pulling out college-level math when it's self-evident there is a contradiction -> no answer, just like OP figured out to begin with.
 

Bigeyez

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Apr 26, 2009
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It has no solution...OR you wrote the problem down wrong, but if it's right theres no solution.
 

Trivun

Stabat mater dolorosa
Dec 13, 2008
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The_root_of_all_evil said:
Aww I missed this. Dammit.
I'm even more diappointed, though that said I wish they'd teach more uni level maths at schools here in good old Blighty. I only covered this way of solving equations in Linear Algebra 1 in my freshers year. I'm in second year now doing Maths BSc and so I know this is impossible anyway, but we really should have done it at school.

That said, today we went through an extremely long and tedious proof of the existence of the 'cycloid' in Calculus of Variations, which is basically the curve that will lead to the fastest time for a particle to reach a point (x2,y2) when dropped from (x1,y1) and acting only under gravity (no other external forces). The proof took about 5 A4 pages. Back in A-Level our teacher showed us and although he didn't prove it, he gave us information on how to prove it ourselves, and it didn't take anywhere near as long as the university method...
 

Megacherv

Kinect Development Sucks...
Sep 24, 2008
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x=10, y=2, z= for the first one.

This doesn't work for the second one, therefore is intentionally impossible. It's like factorising 12x^2-x-6=0, it can't be done as on a graph it doesn't cross the X-axis.

silver scribbler said:
BaronAsh said:
BrotherhoodOfSteel said:
Could you show us more step in your process of elimination? That would help me try and figure this out quicker.
-4x+4x=0
8y-8y=0
2z-2z=0
-20+16=-4 It's this last one that makes this problem impossible.
That is possible. -4 PLUS 20 = 16
so
16=16
What the hell are you on about? That makes no sense. We want all of them to equal 0.
 

Zildjin81

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Feb 7, 2009
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BaronAsh said:
BrotherhoodOfSteel said:
Could you show us more step in your process of elimination? That would help me try and figure this out quicker.
-4x+4x=0
8y-8y=0
2z-2z=0
-20+16=-4 It's this last one that makes this problem impossible.
Erm doesn't -20+16=-4?

Did I miss something?
 

benylor

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May 30, 2009
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Now, just because there is no solution, doesn't mean you can't explain what's going on there.

You have a system with two independent variables and one dependent variable, thus a system of planes, expressable as z=z(x,y). So, a single solution would be the point of intersection between these three planes.

Now, although it has been shown that there is no solution, you can still figure out what exactly is going on between the planes.

List of possibilities:

Single solution (nicest)
All planes equvilent (2-dimensions of infinite solutions)
Sheaf formed (three planes intersect at a line, giving infinite solutions. Note that two planes may be equivilent still)
Triangular Prism formed (no solutions, instead solutions to only equations 1 and 2, 2 and 3, 1 and 3 form parallel lines)
All planes parallel, not all three planes the same (self-explanatory)
Two planes parallel, other one not.

I _think_ these are all the possibilities, and it's possible to discern which solution is valid. Of course, I learned this two years ago, failed miserably at it, and thus can't explain how you detect which possibility is the valid one. Taking a cursory glance, I'd say you have two parallel planes and another plane which can form a line of solutions with either parallel plane.

Thank you.