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Re: Language vs. Library

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg61285] Re: Language vs. Library
  • From: Bill Rowe <readnewsciv at earthlink.net>
  • Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 05:55:24 -0400 (EDT)
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

On 10/13/05 at 1:39 AM, hattons at globalsymmetry.com (Steven T.
Hatton) wrote:

>Try this:

>A = Array[a (10#1 + #2) &, {3, 3}]
>v = {x, y, z}
>A.v // MatrixForm
>Clear[A,v];
>A = Array[a (10#1 + #2) &, {3, 3}] // MatrixForm
>v = {x, y, z} // MatrixForm
>A.v

>Why are the results different?

The issue here is MatrixForm. What it does is apply a wrapper to its argument. When you did A.V//MatrixForm you asked Mathematica to do a matrix multiplication and display the result using MatrixForm. But when you do

v = {x, y, z}//MatrixForm you are asking Mathematica to display things as you want and then set v to the result. That changes the head for v to MatrixForm. So, now A.v asks Mathematica to perform a matrix multiplication on two things that are no longer matrices.

If you like to see matrices displayed in the traditional form (as do I) then you would be better served by setting your default output display to TraditionalForm rather than using MatrixForm

>Explain this:

>Clear[a, i]
>a[i] = eye;
>i = 3;
>a[3] = three;
>Print["a[i]=", a[i]]
>Clear[i];
>Print["a[i]=", a[i]]

You've defined a function named "a" and defined that function for arguments i and 3. For the first Print statement, Mathematica evaluates i to 3 then evaluates a with at 3 and prints the result three. For the second Print statement, the value of i has been cleared so Mathematica evaluates a with an argument i and prints the result eye.

In both of these examples, Mathematica is performing as documented. However, the documentation for MatrixForm could be made clearer.
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