Re: Confusing results with N[expr]?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg62353] Re: Confusing results with N[expr]?
- From: Steven HANCOCK <Steven.Hancock at cern.ch>
- Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 04:41:55 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: CERN
- References: <dlp320$1bs$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
There may be a clue in the following, equally distressing nonsense...
In[1]:=
$Version
Out[1]=
5.1 for Microsoft Windows (October 25, 2004)
(* Map[f, expr] or f /@ expr applies f to each element on the first
level in expr. *)
In[2]:=
Map[f, a^b]
Out[2]=
f[b]
f[a]
In[3]:=
f /@ a^b
Out[3]=
b
a
(* MapAll[f, expr] or f //@ expr applies f to every subexpression in
expr. *)
In[4]:=
MapAll[f, a^b]
Out[4]=
f[b]
f[f[a] ]
In[5]:=
f //@ a^b
Out[5]=
b
f[a]
Thomas Bohl wrote:
> I have the impression that since some time (since Vers. 5.0?) N[expr] does
> not give anymore the results I expect.
>
> The following code should illustrate this:
>
> N[a] = 2.;
>
> k = z*(a*Pi);
> N[k]
>
>>6.28319 z (* "a" and "Pi" are replaced by their numerical value as
>>expected *)
>
>
> k = z^(a*Pi)
> N[k]
>
>>z^(3.14159 a) (* "Pi" is replaced by its numerical value but not "a",
>>why not? *)
>
>
>
> There are more examples of this behaviour: If the expression is Log[z*a*Pi],
> the numerical values of "a" and "Pi" are evaluated, if the expression is
> Exp[z*a*Pi] the numerical value of "a" is not evaluated. Why not?
>
> The motivation behind my question is that I was used to write expressions
> symbolically and assign numerical values with N[expr] = num. value. This way
> you could keep those expressions symbolically and just apply //N when you
> needed numerical values. Now it seems that I have lost this possibility.
>
> Could you please comment my observation and maybe suggest a way out?
>
> Thank you very much for any idea.
>
> Kind regards,
> Thomas.
>
>
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- From: Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz@mimuw.edu.pl>
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