Re: Inconsistent behaviour of Integrate
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg112476] Re: Inconsistent behaviour of Integrate
- From: Bob Hanlon <hanlonr at cox.net>
- Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 06:03:01 -0400 (EDT)
$Version
"7.0 for Mac OS X x86 (64-bit) (February 19, 2009)"
I see the same behavior. In the simplification process it appears to fall through a trap door (i.e., transform rule that it only knows in one direction). At the expense of slow calculation, you can get the first result consistently by making it forget.
Module[{},
ClearSystemCache[];
Integrate[
Sqrt[(x - 1/2)^2 + (y - 1/2)^2],
{x, 0, 1}, {y, 0, 1}]]
(1/6)*(Sqrt[2] + ArcSinh[1])
Bob Hanlon
---- Andreas Maier <andimai at web.de> wrote:
=============
Hello,
I'm using Mathematica 7.0.1.0 on Linux x86 (64bit). I have a notebook
file, where I integrate the same integral twice:
In[1]:= Integrate[Sqrt[(x - 1/2)^2 + (y - 1/2)^2], {x, 0, 1}, {y, 0,
1}]
Out[1]= 1/6 (Sqrt[2] + ArcSinh[1])
In[2]:= Integrate[Sqrt[(x - 1/2)^2 + (y - 1/2)^2], {x, 0, 1}, {y, 0,
1}]
Out[2]= 1/24 (4 Sqrt[2] + Log[17 + 12 Sqrt[2]])
As you can see from the output, integrating the same integral a second
time gives a different result. If I integrate the same integral a
third and a fourth time I always get the second result again. Only if
I restart the mathematica kernel, I get the first result again.
The results are equivalent, since
Log[17 + 12 Sqrt[2]] = Log[(1 + Sqrt[2])^4] = 4* Log[(1 + Sqrt[2]) = 4* ArcSinh[1]
but somehow Mathematica seems to be able to do this simplification
only once. Is this inconsistent behaviour a bug? Is there a
possibility to give mathematica a hint, so that he always find the
first solution 1/6 (Sqrt[2] + ArcSinh[1]) to the integral?
From
In[3]:= Expand[(1 + Sqrt[2])^4]
Out[3]= 17 + 12 Sqrt[2]
In[4]:= Factor[%]
Out[4]= 17 + 12 Sqrt[2]
I also figured that Mathematica doesn't seem to be able to factorize
an expression like 17 + 12 Sqrt[2] into (1 + Sqrt[2])^4. Is this a
known problem? Or should I use a different command to find this
factorization?
Sincerely,
Andreas Maier