Re: Try it again, Mathematica! Was: Can't integrate sqrt(a+b*cos(t)+c*cos(2t))
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg90840] Re: Try it again, Mathematica! Was: Can't integrate sqrt(a+b*cos(t)+c*cos(2t))
- From: "David W.Cantrell" <DWCantrell at sigmaxi.net>
- Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2008 04:19:53 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <g6710s$sb6$1@smc.vnet.net> <g6c959$bpg$1@smc.vnet.net>
Alois Steindl <Alois.Steindl at tuwien.ac.at> wrote:
> Hello,
> I played around a little bit and found the following interesting
> behaviour:
>
> In[1]:= Integrate[Sqrt[5 - 4*Cos[t] + Cos[2*t]], {t, 0, Pi}]
> Out[1]:= \!\(
> \*SubsuperscriptBox[\(\[Integral]\), \(0\), \(\[Pi]\)]\(
> SqrtBox[\(5 - 4\ Cos[t] + Cos[2\ t]\)] \[DifferentialD]t\)\)
>
> In[2]:= Integrate[Sqrt[5 - 4*Cos[t] + Cos[2*t]], {t, 0, Pi}]
> Out[2]:= 1/5 Sqrt[
> 2 + 4 I] (-5 I EllipticE[-(3/5) - (4 I)/5] + (2 + I) Sqrt[5]
> EllipticE[-(3/5) + (4 I)/5] - (12 - 4 I) EllipticK[-(3/5) - (
> 4 I)/5] + (6 - 2 I) Sqrt[5] EllipticK[8/5 - (4 I)/5] +
> 4 I Sqrt[5]
> EllipticPi[
> 1/5 + (2 I)/5, -(3/5) + (4 I)/5] + (8 + 4 I) EllipticPi[
> 1 - 2 I, -(3/5) - (4 I)/5])
>
> So it seems, it helps to ask Mathematica twice.
On my system, one must ask Mathematica _three_ times. (The third time's the
charm.)
The reason Mathematica eventually succeeded is that it remembered work from
its previous attempts. If we had done ClearSystemCache[] between attempts,
Mathematica would presumably never have succeeded.
Is there a parameter which we can change so that Mathematica succeeds on
the first try?
David