stumping Integrate *correction*
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg15286] stumping Integrate *correction*
- From: Selwyn Hollis <shollis at peachnet.campus.mci.net>
- Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 04:39:39 -0500
- Organization: fair
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
I suspect that it's more-or-less well-known that one can easily
construct elementary integrals that Integrate cannot deal with. For
example,
f[x_]:= Sqrt[x + Sqrt[x]]
Integrate[f[x], x]
succeeds, but then
Integrate[f[x+x^2](1+2x), x]
fails. There are a multitude of similar examples, which basically rely
on a simple substitution that Mathematica doesn't ``see."
I'm not complaining---this shortcoming is actually very useful for
convincing calculaus students that they need to know something. My
question is: Does anyone know of any other examples like this; i.e.,
elementary computations for which Mathematica fails without a little
help from the user?
Thanks!
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Selwyn Hollis
Associate Professor of Mathematics
Armstrong Atlantic State University
Savannah, GA 31419 USA
<http://www.math.armstrong.edu/faculty/hollis/>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~