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Re: Differentiating sums

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg63815] Re: [mg63770] Differentiating sums
  • From: Bob Hanlon <hanlonr at cox.net>
  • Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2006 05:43:28 -0500 (EST)
  • Reply-to: hanlonr at cox.net
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Clear[x];

x/:D[Sum[expr_,{i_Symbol,imin_:1,imax_}],x[k_]]:=
    D[expr/.{i:>k},x[k]];

prod=Sum[x[i] y[i],{i,n}];

D[prod,x[j]]

y[j]


Bob Hanlon

> 
> From: "Zvi Tarem" <zvi.tarem at cern.ch>
To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
> Subject: [mg63815] [mg63770] Differentiating sums
> 
> How can I use Mathematica to represent sums in a way that can be 
> differentiated correctly? Here is a trivial example:
> 
> If x and y are both vectors of length N then the derivative of the product 
> of the vectors with respect to any element x[i] is simply y[i]. I cannot 
> make Mathematica 'understand' the concept of indexing. Here is what I 
tried:
> 
> prod = Sum[x[i] y[i], {i, N}]
> D[prod, x[j]]
> I get 0
> 
> D[prod, x[i]]
> I get Sum[y[i],{i,N}] which is wrong.
> 
> The same for subscript notation.
> 
> Then I tried Array[] and Part[], but they require constants as the limit and 
> selectors.
> 
> Can anyone help? 
> 
> 
> 


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