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Re: InverseFunction[]

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg41888] Re: InverseFunction[]
  • From: Bill Rowe <listuser at earthlink.net>
  • Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2003 06:45:50 -0400 (EDT)
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

On 6/7/03 at 11:45 AM, ronnyma at math.uio.no (Ronny Mandal) wrote:

>Is it true that this only displays the inverse function of built-in
>mathematica-function?

While I am not certain it is true I would expect it to be true inverse only works with built in functions.

>How do I then find the inverse of arbitrary functions?

There is no general proceedure for doing this. Nor is it reasonable to expect any computer algebra system to solve this class of problem.

A function is basically a program that can be arbitrarily complex and may not be invertible. For example, consider a MD5 hash of the digits making up a given number. 

But there are a number of resources within Mathematica to achieve something close to what you want. One possibilty would be use Interpolation[Table[{f[x], x}, {x, start, stop, increment}]]


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