It is always a delight to see what seems like a tough problem
quickly dispatched with a bit of elegant math. Thanks, BS!
The method I used also finally worked. I was able to use the posted
answer to fix my typo that had made the system unsolvable.
(I had used +3 rather than -3 for the x-term of P) With
that corrected (also corrected now in my 1st post) W-Alpha spat-out
the right answer:
x=10/3 (b_Q), y=54/19 (b_R) and z= 52/19 R(0)
The moral of the story is look for the easiest way forward first. I
approached it by solving for three unknowns: the Q and R x-term
coefficients and the R(0); the R constant term. Supplying three
equations required the the quadratic formula to equate roots.
Alternatively, BS simply stuck the three unknown roots into the summed functions to begin with. So, I got a non-linear system to
solve, while he got a linear one.
(Seeing that (1/2) [(P+Q) + (R+P) - (Q+R)] = P was key.)
I was amused to learn that 19 is too messy a denominator for some
tastes.
Edited on March 12, 2025, 3:03 pm
corrected eqns.
