re: Specifying rules
- To: mathgroup at yoda.physics.unc.edu
- Subject: re: Specifying rules
- From: Marnix Van Daele <Marnix.VanDaele at rug.ac.be>
- Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 17:58:15 +0200 (MET DST)
On Mon, 13 Jun 1994 Paul=Rubin%Management%Business at banyan.cl.msu.edu wrote: > Ron I. Herman <m1rih00 at frb.gov> wrote: > > >Is there any way to specify rules for symbols? > >For example, is there a way to tell Mathematica > >that a > 0 and b < 0 such that Positive[a b] will > >yield false? > > Yes, using upvalues, but I'm not confident that it works across the board. > For your specific example: > > In[]:= Clear[a, b]; > In[]:= a /: Sign[ a ] = 1; > In[]:= b /: Sign[ b ] = -1; > > The two preceding lines tell Mma to evaluate the Sign function differently > when applied to a and b. The "a /:" part associates that definition with a > rather than Sign (which is protected). If you clear a, the upvalue goes with > it. > > In[]:= Positive[ a b ] > Out[]= False > In[]:= Positive[ a ] > Out[]= True > In[]:= Negative[ b ] 2> Out[]= True > > It worked this time. It seems to me, though, that I've seen other examples > where it doesn't work so well. (I tried up-setting NumberQ[a] to True, so >2 that Mma would think a was a number, and caused a recursion fault with a > later reference to a.) Off-hand, I can't remember the failure stories I've > read. So caveat emptor. > > 2************************************************************************** > * Paul A. Rubin Phone: (517) 336-3509 * > * Department of Management Fax: (517) 336-1111 * > * Eli Broad Graduate School of Management Net: RUBIN at MSU.EDU * > * Michigan State University * > * East Lansing, MI 48824-1122 (USA) * > ************************************************************************** > Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whenever you say something to them, > they translate it into their own language, and at once it is something > entirely different. J. W. v. GOETHE > > > Hello, I have a problem with complex numbers ! I want to tell Mma that a is real, such that Im[a+I] will give 1, but I do not get this result. I have tried a /: Im[a]=0 Can anyone help me ? ============================================================================== Marnix Van Daele Universiteit Gent Vakgroep Toegepaste Wiskunde en Informatica Krijgslaan 281 - Gebouw S9 B9000 Gent (Belgium) tel. 32-(0)9-264.48.09 fax. 32-(0)9-264.49.95 ==============================================================================