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Re: Why Indeterminate?

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg118560] Re: Why Indeterminate?
  • From: David Bailey <dave at removedbailey.co.uk>
  • Date: Tue, 3 May 2011 05:44:32 -0400 (EDT)
  • References: <ipm2em$58b$1@smc.vnet.net>

On 02/05/2011 11:53, Themis Matsoukas wrote:
> The puzzling thing is that, having defined A and a, we now get
>
> A[a, x]
>
> (1/(1 - 3 (1 - 2 x)) + (2 (1 - 2 x))/(1 - 3 (1 - 2 x))) (1 - x) x
>
> which has no indeterminacy. What Mathematica is not telling us is that it obtained this result assuming x<>0.5.
>
> tm
>

Imagine that Mathematica was as rigorous as you suggest. It could barely 
simplify any expression. For example,

(z^2+z)/z

could not be simplified without wrapping the result in a condition! 
Computer algebra (or indeed hand calculations) would be virtually 
useless done that way.

David Bailey
http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk


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