Solving chemical equations with linear algebra

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Snoink
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Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:40 am
Snoink says... · Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:40 am
...does anyone know how to do this?
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gyrfalcon
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Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:57 am
gyrfalcon says... · Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:57 am
I don't claim to be good at math, but I sometimes enjoy algebra. Perhaps if you could give us a specific example?
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Incandescence
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Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:08 am
Incandescence says... · Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:08 am
Snoinkums---


I'm going to assume you're working with a system of chemical reactions, instead of just one. But basically you do the same thing you do when you're given:

3x+4y=7z
4x+2y=8z

except now x,y,z are your chemical species, and the numbers are the unknowns. You probably end up doing some kind of row-echelon reduction, LU / QR decomposition, etc.


Best,
Brad
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Snoink
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Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:09 am
Snoink says... · Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:09 am
Um... here's a somewhat simplified explanation that you might be able to understand.

http://www.macatea.com/wshop/dialogs/di ... lances.pdf

Basically, it's using a matrix to determine the unknown coefficients of the chemicals.

My problem is basically figuring out what is on the "c" part, if that makes sense.
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Incandescence
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Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:23 am
Incandescence says... · Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:23 am
Snoink--


The "C" part is the number of molecular compounds. That whole discourse on C-E just tells you whether the problem is underdetermined, overdetermined, or just right.

Otherwise, I'm not sure what other "c" part there is...? Could you be more specific, please?


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Brad
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