Re: Why doesn't TrueQ return True here?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg119767] Re: Why doesn't TrueQ return True here?
- From: Bill Rowe <readnews at sbcglobal.net>
- Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2011 05:52:42 -0400 (EDT)
On 6/20/11 at 7:37 PM, walkeystalkey at gmail.com (Jacare Omoplata)
wrote:
>So, if I wanted Mathematica to work on t1 and t2 like real numbers I
>should use "$Assumptions = Element[{t1,t2},Reals]" ?
This would be one way. But setting $Assumptions in this manner
affects *all* usages of t1 and t2 and *all* built-in functions
that make use of $Assumptions. That is this is a global
assignment that may have undesired consequences latter on in
your Mathematica session.
=46or myself, I much prefer using the Assuming syntax which
locally modifies the assumptions being used, i.e., doing
Assuming[t2>t1, Simplify[t2-t1>0]]
This avoids any possibility of impacting things you did not
intend to modify.
>It does SOMETHING, according to the following output, because
>Out[3], where I've used t1 and t2, is different from Out[4], where
>I've used the undeclared variables s1 and s2.
The previous comments about doing nothing applied to doing
Element[{t1,t2},Reals]
in a cell by itself. Your code below modifies $Assumptions. The
function Element only does something useful when used as an
argument to Assuming or when assigned to $Assumptions.
>But it still doesn't give t2-t1 as the answer, but gives Abs[t1-t2]
>instead. But I get t2-t1 as the answer in Out[6] and Out[7], where I
>have declared that t2>t1 beforehand.
Right. First you only declared t1 and t2 to be real. Consider
the difference between say
Abs[-4 - 2] = 6 and
Abs[4 - 2] = 2
You have say more about t1 and t2 then simply being real for
Mathematica to simplify Abs[t2-t1].
When you changed $Assumptions to be t2>t1 you gave enough
information for Mathematica to simplify Abs[t2-t1]. Further,
since t2>t1 cannot be evaluated for complex t1,t2, you are
implicitly restricting t2 and t1 to be real.
>-----------output-below-------------
>In[1]:= $Assumptions = Element[{t1, t2}, Reals]
>Out[1]= (t1 | t2) \[Element] Reals
>In[3]:= FullSimplify[Sqrt[(t2 - t1)^2]]
>Out[3]= Abs[t1 - t2]
>In[4]:= FullSimplify[Sqrt[(s2 - s1)^2]]
>Out[4]= Sqrt[(s1 - s2)^2]
>In[5]:= $Assumptions = t2 > t1
>Out[5]= t2 > t1
>In[6]:= FullSimplify[Sqrt[(t2 - t1)^2]]
>Out[6]= -t1 + t2