What do ya think about SymbolicSum?
- To: mathgroup at yoda.physics.unc.edu
- Subject: What do ya think about SymbolicSum?
- From: mek at guinan.psu.edu (Mark E. Kotanchek)
- Date: Thu, 8 Apr 93 15:42:22 -0500
Trivial question here....
I was playing with Algebra`SymbolicSum` and noticed that although it worked in structures like
SymbolicSum[k,{k,K}]
K (1 + K)
---------
2
that, if I used a number instead of K, I didn't get a nice simple result; i.e.,
SymbolicSum[k,{k,6}]
returned
SymbolicSum[k, {k, 6}]
rather than the expected "21" returned by using Sum[k,{k,6}]. Futhermore, Simplify[] and N[] didn't give
me the numeric solution. To me, this behavior is inaccurate -- although, not strictly speaking a bug. Do
you see any reason WRI shouldn't change SymbolicSum to operate with numbers as a symbol. For that
matter, does WRI see any reason why the function works this way?
Toodles,
Mark.
---
Mark Kotanchek
Guidance & Control Dept - 363 ASB
Applied Research Lab/Penn State
P.O. Box 30
State College, PA 16804
e-mail: mek at guinan.psu.edu (NeXTmail)
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