An Introduction to the Theory of Resultants

This report is meant to serve as a working man s introduction to resultants It is aimed at engineers computer scientists and applied mathematicians who encounter systems of polynomial equations in their practice As such it is more of a how to manual than a theoretical study Most of the techniques and results presented here can be found in the classical literature Unfortunately those results are scattered in numerous sometimes out of print sources We have brought them all together for the practitioner s use Simple examples illustrate each technique and the reader should have little di culty in applying the various methods to his or her particular problem