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Re: Solve question

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg57495] Re: Solve question
• From: <wwolfe18 at comcast.net>
• Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 21:00:12 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <d79eqp$lcl$1@smc.vnet.net>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

"Sterritt, Lanny" <lanny.sterritt at lmco.com> wrote in message 
news:d79eqp$lcl$1 at smc.vnet.net...
> When the Solve command is used to obtain the value of a variable in an 
> equation, something like  {x -> value}  is returned.  How does one get 
> Mathematica  to automatically apply this value to following  expressions 
> in a notebook?
>
> L.W.Sterritt

For linear equations.

Here is one way:
Solve[2x == 6,x]
{x->3}
x=x/.%[[1]]
x now has the value 3.

To do this in one step:

x = Solve[2x == 6,x][[1,1,2]]
or
x = x/.Solve[2x == 6,x][[1]]

For equations with multiple roots picking out the root you want 
automatically
is difficult. You may need to see all the roots before you assign one to x.

Solve[x^2==4,x]
{{x->-2},{x->2}}
x = x/.%[[1]]
This will set x equal to -2. Replace [[1]] with [[2]] to set x = 2.

Another approach is to name the output of Solve:
sol = Solve[x^2==4,x]
{{x->-2},{x->2}}
x = sol[[1,1,2] sets x = -2
x = sol[[2,1,2] sets x = 2

To do it all in one step:
x = Solve[x^2==4,x][[1,1,2] or x = Solve[x^2==4,x][[2,1,2]

I'm sure there are other ways to do this as well. Experiment with % and 
Part.

Warren Wolfe