Re: A strange bug in Solve
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg24376] Re: [mg24354] A strange bug in Solve
- From: Andrzej Kozlowski <andrzej at tuins.ac.jp>
- Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 23:13:16 -0400 (EDT)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
This is true and I should have noticed it. But still, note that Solve finds fewer solutions than Reduce, and in fact it misses most of them (so to speak: there are of course infinitely many, but I mean most of the "geometric" solutions) In[1]:= eqns = {2*Cos[2*t]*Cos[u/2] + Cos[t]*Sin[u/2] == 0, (Cos[u/2]*Sin[t])/2 - (Sin[2*t]*Sin[u/2])/2 == 0}; In[2]:= Reduce[eqns, {t, u}] Reduce::ifun: Inverse functions are being used by Reduce, so some solutions may not be found. Out[2]= 1 t == 0 && u == 2 ArcCos[-(-------)] || Sqrt[5] 1 t == 0 && u == -2 ArcCos[-------] || Sqrt[5] -Pi Pi t == --- && u == -Pi || t == -- && u == Pi || 2 2 3 -Sqrt[-] 2 3 t == ArcCos[--------] && u == 2 ArcCos[-Sqrt[-]] || 2 5 3 Sqrt[-] 2 3 t == ArcCos[-------] && u == 2 ArcCos[Sqrt[-]] 2 5 Andrzej on 7/9/00 11:23 PM, BobHanlon at aol.com at BobHanlon at aol.com wrote: > > In a message dated 7/9/2000 5:36:52 AM, andrzej at tuins.ac.jp writes: > >> I have long ago learned to be careful when making claims about kernel bugs >> in Mathematica, but this time I am pretty sure I have found a fairly serious >> one, even though it looks rather strange. >> >> I asked Mathematica to solve a system of two trigonometric equations: >> >> In[1]:= >> eqns = {2*Cos[2*t]*Cos[u/2] + Cos[t]*Sin[u/2] == 0, >> (Cos[u/2]*Sin[t])/2 - (Sin[2*t]*Sin[u/2])/2 == 0}; >> >> To my surprise Solve returned the empty list (I knew these equations do >> have >> solutions for geometric reasons): >> > > Solve doesn't get confused if you simplify the expression: > > eqns = {2*Cos[2*t]*Cos[u/2] + Cos[t]*Sin[u/2] == > 0, (Cos[u/2]*Sin[t])/2 - (Sin[2*t]*Sin[u/2])/2 == 0}; > > Solve[eqns // Simplify, {t, u}] > > "Solve::ifun : Inverse functions are being used by Solve, so some solutions > may not be found." > > {{u -> 2*ArcCos[-(1/Sqrt[5])], t -> 0}, > {u -> -2*ArcCos[1/Sqrt[5]], t -> 0}} > > eqns /. % > > {{True, True}, {True, True}} > > > Bob Hanlon