Re: Use of Mathematica with Rule-based Equation Derivations
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg61941] Re: [mg61914] Use of Mathematica with Rule-based Equation Derivations
- From: Daniel Lichtblau <danl at wolfram.com>
- Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 01:52:31 -0500 (EST)
- References: <200511041011.FAA14913@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
mmorriss at gcn.ou.edu wrote: > Hi All - I'm a many-year user of mathematica, but have always had one > particular problem with it that I may have just simply missed reading > about. > > Mathematica Version: 5.2 > > Problem: I would like to develop a set of re-rewite rules to apply to the > Expected Value operator. For example: > > E[a x] = a E[x] a -> constant, x -> variable > E[b + f[x]] = b + E[f[x]] , etc. > > The issue is how does one using Mathematica distinguish a 'constant > variable (i.e. a and b)' from a variable 'variable' (i.e. 'x')? The head > of a, b and x is 'Symbol' and neither a, b nor x contain a number so I > can't use a_?NumberQ to identify it as a constant. > > This actually goes to the wider question of how does one use Mathematica > for symbolic derviations where numbers are not actually substituted in the > derviation? > > E.g. E[a + E[b x]] /. Rule2 > out= a + b E[x] etc. > > Thanks all - Mark Morrissey > University of Oklahoma > One reasonable approach would be to use an explicit head to denote random variables (as opposed to scalares). Pulling out constant factors could then be done as below. expectation[1] := 1 expectation[a_+b_] := expectation[a]+expectation[b] expectation[a_*b_.] /; FreeQ[a,randomVariable] := a*expectation[b] In[10]:= InputForm[expectation[a+c*randomVariable[b]^2]] Out[10]//InputForm= a + c*expectation[randomVariable[b]^2] A standard recommendation is that you not call the operator E. Daniel Lichtblau Wolfram Research
- References:
- Use of Mathematica with Rule-based Equation Derivations
- From: mmorriss@gcn.ou.edu
- Use of Mathematica with Rule-based Equation Derivations