Solution of Quadratic Equations with Complex Coefficients

FOCAL8-102

Forrest Howard

Submitted by: Brother John F. O'Connell, C. F.X., St.

John's Preparatory School, Danvers, Massachusetts

The principle basis of this program is from the discussion of

quadratic equation with complex coefficients in INTERMEDI-

ATE MATHEMATICS, PART II (SMSG, Yale University Press,

1961), Section 12-5, pp. 707-710. To get around the diffi-

culty of working with the definition of

i = sqrt(-1)

since the computer will reject the square root of a negative

number, the rectangular form of z = a+ bi is converted to the

polar form for the operations upon z and then back to the

rectangular form for the output. The theorem included in the

reference mentioned above indicates that some problems will

have two solutions, while others will have only one. The

example problems included with this program indicate that

this is quite so.

Minimum Hardware:
4K PDP-8/S

Source Language:
FOCAL-69

Catalog: July 1973