## anonymous 5 years ago Dead Open Study is dead. Maybe this 'fun' question will liven things up? :

1. anonymous

Find all values of a, b, x and y which satisfy the following equations: $a + b = 1$ $ax + by = \frac{1}{3}$ $ax^2 + by^2 = \frac{1}{5}$ $ax^3 + by^3 = \frac{1}{7}$ [Hint: You may wish to start by multiplying the second equation by x + y]

2. anonymous

dw gang I'll post a solution later. But not yet - don't want to ruin the fun (and it IS fun).

3. anonymous

None of you got it? I thought open study was better than that. :( disappoint. Just holla at me if you want more real problems (none of the nonsense you normally find on here) and I'll provide.

4. anonymous

INewton: Been working on how you solved your fun question. Have to break off now inorder to file my tax returns on time. Donald Trump and myself are fighting it out for last place.

5. anonymous

A 2Mb pdf file showing a complete Mathematica solution was uploaded this evening to the following web site: http://www.calcentral.com/~hix7exro/INewton_3v4.pdf There will be a 10 to 20 second delay while the file is downloading. My results differ from yours. But I'm just one of those zombies that hang around a dead and decaying web site and one cannot expect much from them.....

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