POLYMATH

POLYMATH

In this course, we are going to use POLYMATH to:

• Draw a graph
• Determine the equation defining a graph
• Integrate finding the area under a graph)
• Solve linear equations simultaneously

Starting:
When you click on the POLYMATH icon, the following screen should appear:
The upper ribbon has the functions that you will need:
To know what each item on the ribbon, move the pointer on each item and hold – the
function will pop up.
To start a spreadsheet click on the following icon:
This is the regression and analysis icon and allows you to enter, analyse, regress, and
plot set of data points. When you press this icon a spreadsheet appears – just as in
EXCEL. Remember that you CAN, if you want, do the calculations in EXCEL and simply
cut and paste into POLYMAT.
Suppose we have the following data
Time (sec) Concentration (C)

0 0.1
1 0.5
3 1.0
5 1.3
9 1.8
12 2.3
Suppose that you want to do the following:
Plot the curve, find the polynomial defining this curve and then find the area under the
curve.
Above each set of values is the column name: CO1, CO2, CO3… This is the default name
but can change this name to what name you like. You will notice that the column name is
t and C. We can add a column name by right clicking on the column CO1. The following
drop down menu pops up:
Look for column name on menu, left click on it and enter the name that you want in the
space provided.
Along with this screen, the following is seen on the right hand side of screen:
Click on Graph. The screen gives you the option of giving the graph a title. It also gives
you the option of determining which is the X Axis and which is the Y Axis. This is important
especially if you have a table with several columns and you want to plot various graphs
with different X and Y values. Once we determine which column we want to be the X axis
and which the Y axis, all we do is press the pink arrow: . The graph automatically pops
up!
To find the polynomial which defines the data points (graph) again look at the top right
corner of screen where data appears:
Click on Regression:
You have the option to choose the order of the polynomial that will best describe the data
points. In Reaction Engineering, unless you want a linear relation, it is common to choose
the fourth order (Polynomial Degree: 4). Click on pink arrow and the following table
appears:
This screen tells you the form of the polynomial:
Model: C = a0 + a1*t + a2*t^2 + a3*t^3 + a4*t^4
It also gives you the values of the constants:
Variable Value 95% confidence

a0 0.101206 0.0568045
a1 0.4589737 0.1000244
a2 -0.0685201 0.0406084
a3 0.005726 0.0053619
a4 -0.0001609 0.0002214
Therefore the polynomial describing the change of concentration is:

C(t) = 0.1012 + 0.4589 t – 0.0685 t2 + 0.0057 t3 -0.0001 t4
To find the area under the curve, we again look at the top right-hand corner:
Click on Analysis. In the middle of block are three options: Interpolation, Differentiation,
and Integration. Click on Integration and an image similar to the one below pops up:
The upper and lower limits of the integration are shown. In the image above the lower
limit is 120 and the upper limit is 180. You can change the limits by simply typing in the
values in the space provided.
POLYMATH uses three methods to integrate: GAULEG, SPLINE, SIMPSON. For the
cases dealt with in Reaction Engineering the SPLINE method works well. Choose this
option then simply hit the pink arrow and the answer pops up! For the data discussed
above the following screen appears:
The area = 16.48 between t =0 and t = 12
To solve a system of equations simultaneously:

Suppose that we want to solve the following 5 equations for the 5 unknowns:
255.3 X1 + 321.0 X2 + 326.8 X3 – 42.3 X4 -163.1X5 = 128.1
415.1 X1 + 281.3 X2 +350.7 X3 + 40.4 X4 -137.8 X5 = -461.1
340.5 X1 + 239.8 X2 - 291.2 X3 + 80.5 X4 – 325.7 X5 = -319.8
-212.3 X1 - 4656.8 X2 + 283.0 X3 +282.8 X4 +11.0 X5 = -177.1
463.5 X1 + 83.9 X2 -198.0 X3 + 145.4 X4 + 369.1 X5 = -366.8
We go to the spreadsheet and click - the “Solve System of Linear Equations”

icon.
The following screen will appear:
The default is to solve 5 equations, but you can solve any number of equations
simultaneously. If you have 4 equations to be solved simultaneously, simply type in 4 in
the space for “number of linear equations” The spreadsheet below will automatically
adjust to solve 4 equations. In the above equation, we want to solve for X1, X2, X3, X4,
and X5, so we enter the values as in the table below:
Press the pink button and the values of X1, X2, X3, X4, and X5 pops up immediately!

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POLYMATH

In this course, we are going to use POLYMATH to:

Suppose we have the following data

Time (sec) Concentration (C)

Variable Value 95% confidence

Therefore the polynomial describing the change of concentration is:

To solve a system of equations simultaneously:

We go to the spreadsheet and click - the “Solve System of Linear Equations”

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