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Question about the derivative of Abs

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg106097] Question about the derivative of Abs
• From: Sam Takoy <samtakoy at yahoo.com>
• Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 05:36:12 -0500 (EST)

Hi,

I kind of asked this question before, but in a more confusing context, 
so now I would like to ask it by itself.

In the course of my computations, I get Abs' and Abs''. It is applied to 
a positive number, so I think those values should be 1 and 0. However, 
Mathematica fails to simplify it.

For example

In[34]:= Abs'[2.0]

Out[34]=
\!\(\*SuperscriptBox["Abs", "\[Prime]",
MultilineFunction->None]\)[2.]


These expressions really mess up my answers. How do I get Mathematica to 
do these simplifications?

Thanks

Sam

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Question about the derivative of Abs
    • From: Patrick Scheibe <pscheibe@trm.uni-leipzig.de>
  • Re: Question about the derivative of Abs
    • From: Leonid Shifrin <lshifr@gmail.com>