I was wondering if this question should be posted in this forum or in Stack Exchange, but reading both "What kind of questions can I ask here?", in Math I found
Software that mathematicians use
So I guess it should fit here.
I have a TI-89 (a –powerful, I guess– Texas Instruments calculator) which I've had since high-school days; I very rarely use it anymore. Of course, for more advanced mathematical computations there is great software for the PC, but maybe some of it (the most simple of it) has been done for the TI-89, and I thought it might be cool finding some use for it again.
Most notably while studying Galois theory lately, I've been using Wolfram Alpha to quickly determine the discriminant of a polynomial of degree >= 3. Of course one could just use the formula (it's not that cumbersome for degrees 3 and 4), but I thought there might be a program that would do it for you.
So, the question is: what good, useful "advanced" (advanced undergraduate and forth) math software do you know for the TI-89?
In particular, do you know of one to compute the discriminant of a polynomial?
I hope the question is well-posed and suited for this forum. If not, please redirect me.
Best Answer
The discriminant can be computed as a (Sylvester) determinant (or resultant), e.g. see Wikipedia Thus you need merely find a program that computes determinants.