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I'm trying to solve an equation for B where

$2 B e^{(1-B)}=1$

I plugged it into wolfram alpha and got:

enter image description here

What is that $W_n$ mean? How do I intrepret this answer?

(Feel free to retag it, I wasn't entirely sure what it falls under!)

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    @glow: Don't agree with the analogy, but do agree that this is a terminology question and is technically not a dupe.2011-03-01

1 Answers 1

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$W(z)$ is the Lambert $W$ function.

$W_k(-\frac{1}{2e})$ where $k \in \mathbb{Z}$ denotes the $k^{th}$ root of the equation $xe^x = -\frac{1}{2e}$

enter image description here

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    What is a new tab? Just kidding :-) In any case, you _need_ some supporting write up. I am pretty sure glowcoder could see the same thing before even creating this question :-)2011-03-01