Re: Forcing Re[]'s to be Real
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg18246] Re: [mg18223] Forcing Re[]'s to be Real
- From: "David Park" <djmp at earthlink.net>
- Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 14:24:25 -0400
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Anthony Foglia wrote: > I seem to have found an interesting problem involving computing the >real part of complex numbers. (Interesting, in that it wasn't there a few >weeks ago when I ran the (as-far-as-i-can-remember) exact same code.) > >I have a complex function: > >k[w] := Sqrt[w^2 (1 + (2 / (1 + I w)))] > >I want to graph the real and imaginary parts, but Mathematica doesn't want >to express the Re[k[w]] as a real number. What do I mean? Well, if I >type: > >Re[Sqrt[1+I]] > >I get out > >Re[Sqrt[1+I]] > >Same if I do Re[ComplexExpand[Sqrt[1+I]]], or Re[(1+I)^(1/2)]. But if I >enter: > >Re[ComplexExpand[(1+I)^(1/2)] > >Mathematica is kind enough to respond with: > >2^(1/4) Cos[Pi/8] > >I'm certain that this is the root of my problem, but I'll be damned if I >know why Mathematica doesn't like it now, but did a few weeks ago. Any >help? > >--Anthony > Since, you want the real and imaginary parts for plotting purposes, you don't need exact expressions and can use N on your expression. Re[Sqrt[1 + I]] // N 1.09868 You probably used an approximate number in your expression several week ago. David Park djmp at earthlink.net http://home.earthlink.net/~djmp/