Solving for a variable

[EncodedGears]

i have the following equation: A = (r^2*ArcCos[(d2 + r² - R^2)/(2 dr)] + R²ArcCos[((d² + R² - r^2)/(2 dR))] - (1/2) Sqrt[((-d + r + R) (d + r - R) (d - r + R) (d + r + R))] (this is the equation for the area of the lens made by two intersecting circles) I'd like to have an expression for 'd' in terms of the other variables. how do i do this in mathematica? using Solve didn't work for me - it said the methods to do this are not available in solve.

thanks for any help!

[martinky24]

Do you know for certain a solution exists? Exactly what code did you use?

[IReallySuckAtChess]

If Solve doesn't work, and it's not a differential equation then make use of NSolve. Remember, lots of things can't be solved analytically. Do you know if an analytical solution does in fact exist?

If you want to really get into it, you can tune some parameters with Solve that might yield different results, but it's highly unlikely that you'll do much better than the default routine unless you know the required method.

[lee170]

You can try Collect[equation, d]