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index problem

  • To: mathgroup at yoda.physics.unc.edu
  • Subject: index problem
  • From: rar at mail.physics.utah.edu (Rudolf A. Roemer)
  • Date: Fri, 15 Apr 1994 10:22:23 -0700

Dear MMA group:

I thought the enclosed example regarding the pitfalls of "indexed functions"
(MMA-Bible p.211) might interest some of you.

As you know, MMA allows for the definition of indexed heads such as the
following list

In[25]:=
a[2]  ={1., 1., 1.}
a[1]  ={2., 2., 2.}

Out[25]=
{1., 1., 1.}
{2., 2., 2.}

Let's now define a function that does nothing but sum over this list. Since
we use this function with both lists, we use "Bpar" to be our index.

In[26]:=
trhoBE[x_,Bpar_]:=
 Sum[
  a[Bpar][[j]],
  {j,1,Length[a[Bpar]]}
 ];

So, let's try this:

In[27]:=
trhoBE[x,2]
trhoBE[x,N[2]]

Out[27]=
3.

Out[28]=
2.

Oops, something went wrong, i.e., the index N[2] was not accepted. This is
clear, since in our definition (In[25]), we use the INTEGER "2" as the index
and not the REAL number "2.".

However, MMA sometimes does convert integers into reals apparently by
default as in the next example:

In[29]:=
NIntegrate[trhoBE[x,1/2], {x,.1,.9}]
NIntegrate[trhoBE[x,N[1/2]], {x,.1,.9}]

Out[29]=
0.4

Out[30]=
0.4

Note that both answers are WRONG. We expect 3 * (0.9 - 0.1) = 2.4.
In a piece of complicated code, it is extremely hard to nail a problem
down to this. Only when we put the function trhoBE[] into the integration
by hand, do we get the right result (and N[2] as index is wrong again,
although different from the above):

In[31]:=
NIntegrate[
 Sum[
  a[2][[j]],
  {j,1,Length[a[2]]}
 ],
 {x,.1,.9}
]
NIntegrate[
 Sum[
  a[N[2]][[j]],
  {j,1,Length[a[N[2]]]}
 ],
 {x,.1,.9}
]

Out[31]=
2.4             (* YES, that's RIGHT! *)

Out[32]=
1.6             (* WRONG again *)

Funny, isn't it?

        -Rudo


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