Solution 5.8.4.8
Wewish to factor the polynomial
s
5
+71s
4
+1470s
3
+9400s
2
+8000s:
Using root locus techniques. Wedonot need root locus analysis to see that
one rootisats =0.Soall wereally need to nd our the roots of the fourth
order equation
s
4
+71s
3
+1470s
2
+9400s+8000=0:
Wecan reformulate this as a root locus problem as follows. Divide both
sides of the equation by
s
4
+71s
3
+1470s
2
;;
to obtain
s
4
+71s
3
+1470s
2
s
4
+71s
3
+1470s
2
+
9400s+8000
s
4
+71s
3
+1470s
2
=0;;
or
1+
9400(s+40=47)
s
4
+71s
3
+1470s
2
=0:
Wecaneasily factor s
4
+71s
3
+1470s
2
,toobtain
1+
9400(s+40=47)
s
2
(s +35:5; j14:4827)(s+35:5+j14:4827)
=0:
Nowconsider the root locus problem
1+
K(s +40=47)
s
2
(s +35:5; j14:4827)(s+35:5+j14:4827)
=0:
The root locus is shown in Figure 1.
This locus was generated with MATLAB and shows one of MATLAB's
deciencies, namely that it sometimes confuses points on the root locus.
However, the root locus is sucienttoshowusthat the system could have
all real roots or all complex roots, depending on the gain.
Since the real roots lie between s = ;40=47 and s ;33, webegin by
searching along the real axis to the left of s = ;40=47 for the point where
the gain is 9400. Figure 2 shows howwecalculate K for s = ;2.
1
-45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
25
Real Axis
I
mag
A
x
i
s
Figure 1: Root Locus
Im(s)
Re(s)
-(40/47)
2
s + 40/47
s
s +35.5 -j14.4827
s +35.5 +j14.4827
Figure 2: Gain Calculation
2
s -1 -2 -5 -8 -10 -15 -20 -30 -35 -40
K 9400 4637.3 6868.2 8648 9400 1001.8 9400 7410.2 7533 9400
Table 1: Searchforthe value K =9400
For s = ;2we get
K =
jsjjsjjs +35:5; j14:4827jjs+35:5+j14:4827j
js +40=47j
s=;2
= 4637:3
The value of K wehavefound is too small. This tells us that the root
we are looking for is to the rightofs = ;2. So wenext guess s = ;1, for
whichwe obtain:
K =
jsjjsjjs +35:5; j14:4827jjs+35:5+j14:4827j
js +40=47j
s=;1
= 9400:
Thus, wehavefound one of the roots of the polynomial. Table 1 summarizes
the searchofthe value 9400. In this case the polynomial has four real roots
and the factorization is Thus
s
4
+71s
3
+1470s
2
+9400s+8000 = (s +1)(s +10)(s +20)(s+40)
3