Re: piecewise vs which
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg60129] Re: piecewise vs which
- From: Jean-Marc Gulliet <jeanmarc.gulliet at gmail.com>
- Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 03:01:52 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: The Open University, Milton Keynes, U.K.
- References: <200509020833.EAA05912@smc.vnet.net> <dfbf3g$io7$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Curtis Osterhoudt wrote:
> Hi, Bradley,
>
> Some similar questions -- but with limits of +/- Infinity -- have
> been bantered about on this group recently regarding limits.
>
> The Piecewise function returns 0 as a default value when a domain
> isn't given for an argument. I found this from the command ?Piecewise,
> but it's also in the fuller Help Index documentation, of course. If you
> make a larger "gap", say,
>
> f[x_] := Piecewise[{{x^2, x < 2}, {3*x, x > 10}}]
>
>
> then Piecewise will return 0 for values for 2<= x <= 10.
>
> For the students' sake you might define f to return Null at
> "unspecified" arguments, with
>
> f[x_] := Piecewise[{{x^2, x < 2}, {3*x, x > 10}}, Null]
>
>
> This should plot and behave more as you expect. Also, the Limit function
> now works as you'd expect, including directed limits: try
>
> Limit[f[x], x -> 2, Direction -> 1]
>
> vs.
>
> Limit[f[x], x -> 2].
>
Hi Curtis,
I might have miss something but the issue about the limit does not seem
to be solved if the function is only discontinuous at one point, say 2
as in the original question, rather than not being defined over an
interval. Compare
In[1]:=
Clear[f]
f[x_] := Piecewise[{{x^2, x < 2}, {3*x, x > 10}}, Null]
Limit[f[x], x -> 2, Direction -> 1]
Limit[f[x], x -> 2, Direction -> -1]
Limit[f[x], x -> 2]
Out[3]=
4
versus
In[6]:=
Clear[f]
f[x_] := Piecewise[{{x^2, x < 2}, {3*x, x > 2}}, Null]
Limit[f[x], x -> 2, Direction -> 1]
Limit[f[x], x -> 2, Direction -> -1]
Limit[f[x], x -> 2]
Out[8]=
4
Out[9]=
6
Out[10]=
6
In[11]:=
$Version
Out[11]=
"5.2 for Microsoft Windows (June 20, 2005)"
I believe, although I may be wrong, that the limit can be handled
correctly only by defining your own limit function (see for example
David Park's message in this thread).
Best regards,
/J.M.
- References:
- piecewise vs which
- From: "Bradley Stoll" <BradleyS@harker.org>
- piecewise vs which