I am a very new user, and I'm having trouble using the solve function to solve for the neutral axis location in a reinforced concrete beam. I can solve the function by hand, but I am trying to put my hand calculations into a nice, easy to read format.

When boiled down, the quadratic equation is solve(c^2+62.54c-63839=0,c)=(solved roots)

The roots of the equation are 223.3 and -285.9 using the quadratic formula. SMath is saying there are no real roots and I disagree. Am I doing somthing wrong?

Paul,

Option 1:

You need to use the solve function that requires 4 arguments. However, at this point, the solve function is not robust enough to solve equations if the range specified by the 3rd and 4th arguments of the solve function is too large. See the screenshot below:



As seen above, it may be necessary to graph the function in order to determine the initial guesses for the 3rd and 4th arguments.

See Solve for more info.

Option 2:

Use the polyroots function,



See Polyroots for more info.

Thank you Will. Much appreciated.