Integrate Result depends on symbol used
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg42815] Integrate Result depends on symbol used
- From: hanson at physics.auburn.edu (Jim Hanson)
- Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 04:07:47 -0400 (EDT)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Mathematica's ability to do a definite integral depends on the symbol used. Here's an example with Mathematica 5.0.0.0 on a Macintosh running OSX 10.2.6. Note that Mathematica can do the integral with a symbol z (which comes after the variable of integration y in the alphabet) but can't do it with a symbol x. This seems very odd to me. Does anyone know why this happens? In[1]:= Integrate[Sqrt[y - x]/(y^2 Sqrt[1 - y^2]), { y , x, 1}, Assumptions -> {x > 0, x < 1}] Sqrt[-x + y] Out[1]= Integrate[---------------, {y, x, 1}, Assumptions -> {x > 0, x < 1}] 2 2 y Sqrt[1 - y ] In[2]:= Integrate[Sqrt[y - z]/(y^2 Sqrt[1 - y^2]), {y, z, 1}, Assumptions -> {z > 0, z < 1}] 2 Out[2]= (Pi (------- - Sqrt[z] 1 1 3 1 5 2 2 Sqrt[2 Pi] HypergeometricPFQ[{-(-), -, -}, {-, -}, z ] 4 4 4 2 4 > -------------------------------------------------------- + 1 5 Gamma[-] Gamma[-] 4 4 1 3 5 3 7 2 Sqrt[2 Pi] z HypergeometricPFQ[{-, -, -}, {-, -}, z ] 4 4 4 2 4 > -----------------------------------------------------)) / 4 1 7 Gamma[-(-)] Gamma[-] 4 4