Re: Symbolic Derivative of Piecewise Contin Fcn
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg15553] Re: Symbolic Derivative of Piecewise Contin Fcn
- From: "Atul Sharma" <mdsa at musica.mcgill.ca>
- Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 13:44:36 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: McGill University Computing Centre
- References: <77v3jp$kn3@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
The easiest way to set up the piecewise continuous function is to use
the Which[ ] construct in your function definition.
i.e.
htest[uval_] :=
Which[uval < 0, uval^2, uval >=0, uval^5]
In[63]:= D[htest[uval],uval]
Out[63]= Which[uval < 0, 2 uval, uval >= 0, 5 uval^4]
res$4 is a consequence of the scope rules within the module you set up,
with the suffix $4 used to keep the variable distinct from the global
variable of the same name. See section 2.6.3 in the Mathematica book
re: variable names within modules:
In[1]:= Module[{t}, Print[t]]
Out[1]: = t$1
A. Sharma
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Atul Sharma MD, FRCP(C)
Pediatric Nephrologist,
McGill University/Montreal Children's Hospital 2300 Tupper, Montreal,
QC, Canada H3H 1P3
Steve Sullivan wrote in message <77v3jp$kn3 at smc.vnet.net>...
>How can I get a symbolic derivative on a region of a piecewise
>continuous function using Mathematica? Two simple examples, extracted
>from long Modules are below.
>
>Alternatively, is there some magic functional M that, given a piecewise
>contin function, would return a piece of it? For example, let: f[x_]
>:= If[ x < 0, x^2, x^5] Is there a M such that: M[ f, {x < 0}] would
>return: x^2
>
>Many thanks for any help ...
>Steve
>
>
>The following examples of the failure of D[ ] are extracted from much
>more complicated functions. They were run using Mathematica 3.0.
>
>htest[ uval_ ] := Module [
> {res},
> If[ uval < 0, res = uval^2, res = uval^5];
> res
>]
>
>D[ htest[ uval], uval]
>==> returns: 0
>
>
>
>tstb[ pow_Integer, uval_ ] := Module [
> {res}, (* local vars *)
> If[ pow == 0,
> If[ uval < 0, res = 0, res = uval^2],
> res = uval^5 * tstb[ pow-1, uval]
> ];
> res (* return *)
>]
>
>D[ tstb[ 0, uval], uval]
>==> returns: 0
>
>D[ tstb[ 1, uval], uval]
>==> returns: 5 res$4 uval^4 (?? what is res$4 ?)
>
>
>