Re: symbolic evaluation
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg87038] Re: symbolic evaluation
- From: Szabolcs Horvát <szhorvat at gmail.com>
- Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 01:14:22 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: University of Bergen
- References: <fsl267$g9p$1@smc.vnet.net>
p3aul wrote:
> Thank you all for your answers, but they all result in Mathematica "solving" the equation and giving the answer 2, which is not what I need. What I need is for Mathematica to transpose the formula giving as out put x = 14/7. I beginning to believe that mathematica can't do it because the designer didn't put that capability in it. This must be a hard concept for a computer to do. It just seems simple to me. What's wrong with "out[1]= {{x -> 14/2}}" Which output I can't seem to get.
14/7 is the same as 2. If you want to keep Mathematica from evaluating
expressions, use Hold, or HoldForm:
Hold[14/7]
HoldForm[14/7]
I can't see why anyone would need to get the solution in the form 14/7
instead of 2. This is just a minor formatting difference, not a
mathematical one.
If you need this for teaching elementary mathematics, then I think that
a blackboard is a much more suitable tool than Mathematica ...