Re: non integer exponents in ContourPlot[]?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg35218] Re: non integer exponents in ContourPlot[]?
- From: Jens-Peer Kuska <kuska at informatik.uni-leipzig.de>
- Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2002 05:13:14 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: Universitaet Leipzig
- References: <afrgq3$lt1$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Reply-to: kuska at informatik.uni-leipzig.de
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Hi, just try In[]:=a = -5.75; b = 2; d = 1.1; ContourPlot[a*((x^2.1 + y^2.0)^0.5 + b*y^2.0), {x, -d, d}, {y, -d, d}, ContourShading -> False, Contours -> {-6, -3, -1}, PlotPoints -> 30]; *and* In[]:=%[[1]] and you will see that the array for contour plot is filled with complex numbers {{-22.7982 - 0.702496 \[ImaginaryI], -22.4857 - 0.626646 \[ImaginaryI], -22.1876 - 0.552341 \[ImaginaryI], -21.9052 - 0.480004 \[ImaginaryI], -21.64 - 0.410144 \[ImaginaryI], -21.3936 - 0.343352 \[ImaginaryI], -21.1674 - 0.280309 \[ImaginaryI], -20.9631 - 0.221766 \[ImaginaryI], -20.7822 - 0.168531 \[ImaginaryI], -20.6259 - 0.121428 \[ImaginaryI], -20.4955 - 0.0812504 \[ImaginaryI], -20.3918 - 0.0486989 \[ImaginaryI], -20.3153 - 0.0243116 \[ImaginaryI], -20.2659 - 0.00838107 \[ImaginaryI], -20.2426 - 0.000837412 \[ImaginaryI], -20.2427, -20.2672, -20.3191, -20.3994, \ -20.5079, -20.644, -20.8067, -20.9947, -21.2063, -21.4399, -21.6939, \ -21.9666, -22.2564, -22.5618, -22.8813}, .... Because x^(2.1) of a negative number (x in [-d,d]) *must* be complex. Regards Jens "1.156" wrote: > > Mathematica wizards all: > > The following code runs fine, note the (apparent) floating point form of the exponents. > > a=-5.75;b=2;d=1.1; > > ContourPlot[a*((x^2.0 + y^2.0)^0.5 + b*y^2.0), {x, -d, d}, {y, -d, d}, ContourShading -> False, > Contours -> {-6, -3, -1}, PlotPoints -> 30]; > > But, if I make any of the 2.0 exponents say, 2.1, I get big error messages like > > ContourGraphics::ctpnt: > The contour is attempting to traverse a cell in which some of the points have not evaluated to numbers, > and it will be dropped. > > However, it works fine if I change the 0.5 exponent to say, 0.55. > > Can anyone give me a hint of what's going on here? I'd sure like to be able to play with these exponents to fit some data. > > Thanks, Rob