Re: piecewise vs which
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg60128] Re: piecewise vs which
- From: Helen Read <hpr at together.net>
- Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2005 02:06:27 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <df9437$620$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Reply-to: read at math.uvm.edu
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Bradley Stoll wrote:
> Consider defining a function in Mathematica (v. 5.2) in two different
> ways: f[x_]=Piecewise[{{x^2,x<2},{3x,x>2}}] and
> g[x_]=Which[x<2,x^2,x>2,3x]. Notice that 2 is not in the domain of
> either function. However, if I ask for f[2], Mathematica returns 0 and if I ask
> for g[2] Mathematica (correctly) returns nothing. Is this a bug with
> Mathematica (that Mathematica returns 0 for f[2]), since 2 is not in the domain?
> While I have eyes, there is another question regarding limits. Is it
> the case that Limit[f[x],x->2] defaulted as
> Limit[f[x],x->2,Direction->-1] (a right hand limit)? Both return 6 in
> the above example. I'm using Mathematica in my calculus class and would
> like to explain why Mathematica does certain things. It doesn't seem
> that it would've been too difficult to just have two subroutines (a
> right and left hand limit) to determine whether a 'full' limit actually
> existed.
Limit does indeed default to Direction->-1. Try, for example,
Limit[Abs[x]/x,x->0]
I don't like this at all. For purposes of teaching calculus students,
where we are only concerned with real numbers and are not taking limits
in the complex plane, I would like Limit to check from both directions.
--
Helen Read
University of Vermont
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