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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


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