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Colloquium, Spring 2005

Day: Thursday May 12th Time: 4:00pm Place: BH 227 Title: Solving the quartic with a pencil Speaker: Dave Auckly, Kansas State University Abstract: Most people have seen the solution to the equation ax^2+bx+c=0 by the time they enter college. There is a similar solution to the equation ax^4+bx^3+cx^2+dx+e=0, that was discovered a long time ago. By itself the formula is a big mess, however there is a geometric picture of the solution to the general 4th degree equation that is very memorable. This geometric picture will be used to lead the audience to the solution of the quartic. Exploratory excursions into the geometry will be encouraged throughout the talk. The talk should be accessible to undergraduate students. Cookies: In BH 300 at 3:30pm.