Ask A Scientist Mathematics Archive

Question: Please identify Bairstow of "Bairstow's Algorithm."  I would 
appreciate a reference so that I can find "Bairstow's Algorithm."  Any other 
information will be greatly appreciated.
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I am guessing you refer to a method of finding the coefficients p 
and q in the polynomial x^2+px+q whose rootsare also roots of another 
polynomial.  The man was LeonardBairstow, born in 1880.  His field was 
aerodynamics, and heworked with the British government in that capacity, 
duringWorld War I and thereafter.  He wrote a book entitled 
"AppliedAerodynamics" (1920) in the appendix of which is a descriptionof the 
algorithm that bears his name.  Two modern referencesthat take slightly 
different approaches to the method: "Numerical Recipes" by Press et al., 
Cambridge Univ. Press (includes a Fortran program of the method) and 
"Ecyclopedic Dictionary of Mathematics" by the Mathematical Society of Japan, 
MIT Press (gives the algorithm).
Ron Winther
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