[Mma 2.0] What are the semantics of "Reduce"?
- To: mathgroup at yoda.physics.unc.edu
- Subject: [Mma 2.0] What are the semantics of "Reduce"?
- From: franz at cs.washington.edu (Franz G. Amador)
- Date: Mon, 5 Oct 92 11:55:41 -0700
[Mathematica 2.0 for Sun SPARC]
Is there a formal semantics for Mathematica's "Reduce" function? In
particular, what behavior can I count on, if any, when I give to
Reduce a set of non-independent equations (i.e. equations which cannot
actually be solved for the desired variables)? So far, its results
have taken the following form:
- Reduce returns a sequence of alternative "solutions" separated by "Or".
- Each "solution" is a sequence of equations conjoined by "And".
- The first equation(s) in a solution establish equality or inequality
conditions upon any parameters (i.e. variables not being solved for).
- The remaining equations in a solution express each solved-for variable
(except the first) in terms of the first solved-for variable.
This last part, solving for each variable in terms of the first, is
not documented in "Mathematica, A System for Doing Mathematics by
Computer" (2nd ed), and it is what I am most interested in. Can I
depend on this behavior?
Thanks,
Franz Amador
franz at cs.washington.edu
{rutgers,cornell,ucsd,ubc-cs,tektronix}!uw-beaver!june!franz