Talk:Vieta's Formulas

I'm pretty sure these are wrong. I'm not sure how to fix, though. --Mysmartmouth 14:15, 18 June 2006 (EDT)

I fixed them (I think).

Joe 14:29, 18 June 2006 (EDT)

A tip (not meaning to single anyone out; I've seen this in a lot of the math entries): write so that people who don't already know the material can understand it. As this page currently reads, only people who already know the material will grasp it. That doesn't help people who come to this page in order to learn what Vieta is.

This is why we created AoPSWiki: there's already a page for the pros: Mathworld. The big problem with Mathworld is that it's very hard for people who are just trying to learn and don't already know what the subject is.

So, start with something simple - put the fancy definition at the end. Imagine back when all you knew was barely how to factor a cubic - would the term 'symmetric sum' mean anything to you? Would all those subscripts be daunting?--Rrusczyk 21:38, 18 June 2006 (EDT)

Article title

The mathematician after whom these identities are named is François Viète -- I have no idea where the spelling Vieta came from, but it seems to me that we should change the spelling here and elsewhere. Thoughts? --JBL 00:25, 28 May 2007 (EDT)

Okay, never mind -- it's just the Latinized form of his name. --JBL 00:32, 28 May 2007 (EDT)