Posts from Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

So I have this equation that’s great for finding one term.  Problem is, I need to solve for another term that’s scattered all across the right side.  I’m hoping someone here has the mad algebra skills I managed to lose in the two decades since I last took a math class and can help me out.

Here’s the original equation:

Q = (3.07 × F × Y × (1 + 1.4 × ((D/V) × e^{(-2 × D/V)}))) / D²

I want to be able to solve for D, not Q; in other words, have a single D on the left and everything else on the right of the equation.  F, Y, and V are all variable terms; the e is the classic irrational constant.  I tried for quite a while to do this and ran very firmly aground.  The best I managed was this minor simplification:

Q = (3.07 × F × Y × (1 + 1.4 × (D / (V × e^{(2 × D/V)}))) / D²

…and even that assumes that I did things correctly.  Here’s the original equation in pretty shoulda-done-it-in-MathML-but-oh-well form:

I can shuffle the chairs around, as it were, but never really get anywhere close to having a single D on the left.  “But it’s so easy!“, you may well be shouting.  That’s why you’re working for Google and I’m not.

I remember having questions just like this on tests back in college: “Given this equation, solve for blah”.  It’s been too long, though, and in all honesty I was never that great at this sort of thing in the first place. Help, please?

[Update 14 Jan 09]: several commenters have shown that what I’m trying to do is impossible.  Frustrating, but that’s math for you.  Looks like I’ll have to take another approach.