Re: Solve vs. NSolve
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg92834] Re: Solve vs. NSolve
- From: Bill Rowe <readnews at sbcglobal.net>
- Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:59:49 -0400 (EDT)
On 10/13/08 at 6:21 AM, sigmundv at gmail.com (SigmundV) wrote:
>Consider
>f[a_, b_, c_, k_, t_] :=
>With[{\[Alpha] = a k, \[Beta] = b k}, (x - \[Alpha] Cos[t])^2/a^2 +
>(y - (\[Beta] Sin[t] + c) - c)^2/b^2 - 1 == 0]; df[a_, b_, c_, k_,
>t_] := D[f[a, b, c, k, t], t];
>and execute
>{x, y} /. Simplify@PowerExpand@Simplify@Solve[{f[1, 2, 1/2, 4/5, t],
>df[1, 2, 1/2, 4/5, t]}, {x, y}] // Chop // N
>and
>{x, y} /. Simplify@PowerExpand@Simplify@NSolve[{f[1, 2, 1/2, 4/5,
>t], df[1, 2, 1/2, 4/5, t]}, {x, y}] // Chop
>Simplify@PowerExpand@Chop@Simplify[% /. Cos[2 t] -> (1 - 2
>Sin[t]^2)]
>respectively.
>As you see, Solve and NSolve yield two different solutions, with the
>solution from Solve being the correct one, as can be verified by
>plugging in to the equations -- the solution from NSolve does not
>satisfy the second equation, but only the first. Can anyone explain
>this behaviour to me?
The issue isn't NSolve vs Solve since,
In[5]:= Solve[{f[1, 2, 1/2, 4/5, t], df[1, 2, 1/2, 4/5, t]}, {x,
y}] // FullSimplify
Out[5]= {{x -> (4*Cos[t])/5 - Cot[t]*Sqrt[Sin[t]^2],
y -> (8*Sin[t])/5 - 2*Sqrt[Sin[t]^2] + 1},
{x -> (4*Cos[t])/5 + Cot[t]*Sqrt[Sin[t]^2],
y -> (8*Sin[t])/5 + 2*Sqrt[Sin[t]^2] + 1}}
and
In[8]:= NSolve[{f[1, 2, 1/2, 4/5, t], df[1, 2, 1/2, 4/5, t]}, {x,
y}] // FullSimplify // Chop
Out[8]= {{x -> 0.8*Cos[t] - 1.*Cot[t]*Sqrt[Sin[t]^2],
y -> 1.6*Sin[t] - 2.*Sqrt[0.49999999999999994 -
0.49999999999999994*Cos[2*t]] + 1.},
{x -> 0.8*Cos[t] + 1.*Cot[t]*Sqrt[Sin[t]^2],
y -> 1.6*Sin[t] + 2.*Sqrt[0.49999999999999994 -
0.49999999999999994*Cos[2*t]] + 1.}}
The issue is the transformations you do to these solutions. In
particular, note
In[14]:= Sqrt[Sin[t]^2] == Sin[t] /. t -> -.5
Out[14]= False
That is PowerExpand needs to be used with a lot of care since
the transformation it does is not valid for all possible values.
=46or the case where you used Solve, PowerExpand transforms
2*Sqrt[Sin[t]^2] to 2 Sin[t]. In the case where you used NSolve,
the mathematically equivalent expression 2.*Sqrt[0.5 -
0.5*Cos[2*t]] is unaffected by PowerExpand. The result is two
expressions that are not equal although they started as equal.