Raise 'NotImplementedError' when solving equation 'x-sin(x)==0'

[evan0greenup]

When typing sympy.solve('x-sin(x)', 'x'), it raise NotImplementedError.

[ethankward]

It does raise NotImplementedError already. What output do you get?

[oscarbenjamin]

This is a transcendental equation and those are difficult to solve in general. In this particular case there is a unique real solution x=0 which is not found. I'm not sure about complex solutions.

I don't know how to propose a good general method for this situation short of saying that maybe it's worth having solve try substituting some obvious values like 0 or 1 to look for solutions:

In [1]: (x-sin(x)).subs(x,0)                                                                                                                                  
Out[1]: 0