Re: Simplify[expr] bug?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg53407] Re: [mg53398] Simplify[expr] bug?
- From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
- Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 01:42:00 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: Mathematics & Statistics, Univ. of Mass./Amherst
- References: <200501100404.XAA14039@smc.vnet.net>
- Reply-to: murray at math.umass.edu
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
NO, it's not a bug! Before attempting such things, it behooves you to read a couple of pages of the documentation that accompanies Mathematica. Just about ANY source of such documentation would explain that (in the default input mode for Mathematica expressions), you surround arguments of functions in [square brackets], whereas (parentheses) are used solely as punctuation. What you entered means: Sin * a - Sin * b. so Mathematica correctly simplfied that by factoring out the expression Sin. What presumably you want to enter is: Simplify[Sin[a] - Sin[b]] But since Mathematica knows nothing about a or b, it will return Sin[a] - Sin[b] as result. The same problem is the case with your second alleged bug. Plesae try not to suggest attributing the term "bug" to Mathematica behavior you do not yet understand! Best wishes for getting started productively with Mathematica. Ken Tozier wrote: > I'm a complete newbie to Mathematica and not a math whiz, but the > results I got from the following two equations seems like bugs to me. > > Test 1: > Running: Simplify[Sin(a) - Sin(b)] > Yeilds: (a - b)Sin > > Looks like it's treating the function "Sin" like a coefficient > > Test 2: > Running: Simplify[d/s + Cos(2*¹*v/s) - Cos(2*¹*(v - 1)/s)] > Yeilds: (d + 2 Cos ¹) / s > > Mathematica completely factors out the variable "v" which is critical > to the correct solution. > > Are these bugs or am I making an inadvertent syntax error. > > Thanks, > > Ken Tozier > > -- Murray Eisenberg murray at math.umass.edu Mathematics & Statistics Dept. Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H) University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W) 710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801 Amherst, MA 01003-9305
- References:
- Simplify[expr] bug?
- From: Ken Tozier <kentozier@comcast.net>
- Simplify[expr] bug?