Want to 'Solve' a piecewise equation for a common term
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg79756] Want to 'Solve' a piecewise equation for a common term
- From: "misnomer at gmail.com" <misnomer at gmail.com>
- Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2007 06:34:57 -0400 (EDT)
I've been battling to try to get a solution to my equation, but it
requires solving of a piecewise function, which I cannot work out how
to do. Say I have a piecewise function of the form
temp = Piecewise[{
{ 2*N*x, x < 0},
{ N*x, x >= 0}
}]
I want to either solve this via
Solve[1==temp, N]
and either get, with the inequalities,
N -> Piecewise[{
{1/(2*x), x < 0},
{1/x, x >= 0}
}]
or just get mathematica to realise that there is a common term - N,
and factor it out to, say,
N * Piecewise[{
{2*x, x < 0},
{x, x >= 0}
}]
from where solve can handle it perfectly well.
Is this type of operation possible, or am I stuck editing them by hand?