Symbolic Expression

The solve function solves an equation and returns the solution(s) as symbolic expressions. The answer can be converted to numbers by using any numeric function, like double:

>> x = sym('x');

>> solve('2*x^2 + x = 6')

ans =

3/2

   -2

>> double(ans)

ans =

      1.5000

    -2.0000

When an expression is passed to the solve function instead of an equation, it will set the expression equivalent to 0 and solve the resulting equation. For illustration, this will solve

3x² + x = 0:

>> solve('3*x^2 + x')

ans =

       0

 -1/3