[SciPy-user] Trivial quadratic equation question

[Yosef Meller]

On Wednesday 13 May 2009 18:54:31 Douglas Macdonald wrote:
> Thanks Christian. This looks like it will do the job. No point in
> reinventing the wheel.

Note that the NumPy root-finding function is very general, so can be much 
slower than computing the well-known formula for quadratic roots - especially 
if you also know something about the coefficients that can save time. I once had 
an algorithm sped up by two orders of magnitude by implementing a tailored 
formula for a quartic formula with the cubic and quadratic coefficients known to 
be zero and some other specific knowledge.
 
In case anyone is wondering, this case arises in a lumped-elements network of 
thermal components with radiative heat transfer making the quadratic and 
conduction/convection making the linear part.