Odd results in integration
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg32871] Odd results in integration
- From: Tomas Garza <tgarza01 at prodigy.net.mx>
- Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2002 04:35:31 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
This problem has been brought to my attention, and I am puzzled as to
what's going on. The following indefinite integral is readily evaluated
by Mathematica:
In[1]:=
Integrate[(a - y)^(2*n - 1)/(b - y)^n, y]
Out[1]=
((a - y)^(2*n)*(-b + y)*Hypergeometric2F1[1 - n, 1 - 2*n,
2 - n, -((b - y)/(a - b))])/(((-a + b)*(-1 + n))*
((1 + (b - y)/(a - b))^(2*n)*(b - y)^n))
where a, b and n are constants. However, if in the above input cell one
uses the greek letters "alfa" and "beta" (through Esc a Esc and Esc b
Esc) instead of a and b, respectively, the result turns out to be
different.
Tomas Garza
Mexico City