home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
/ NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16 / NN_1992_16.iso / spool / sci / math / symbolic / 2119 < prev    next >
Encoding:
Internet Message Format  |  1992-07-30  |  2.6 KB
  1. Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!usc!sdd.hp.com!mips!news.cs.indiana.edu!bsu-cs!news.nd.edu!derwent.math.nd.edu!user
  2. From: derwent.1@nd.edu (John E. Derwent)
  3. Newsgroups: sci.math.symbolic
  4. Subject: Re: Mathematica limit quirks
  5. Message-ID: <derwent.1-300792094624@derwent.math.nd.edu>
  6. Date: 30 Jul 92 14:49:44 GMT
  7. References: <1992Jul29.204757.19045@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>
  8. Sender: news@news.nd.edu (USENET News System)
  9. Followup-To: sci.math.symbolic
  10. Organization: University of Notre Dame
  11. Lines: 59
  12.  
  13. In article <1992Jul29.204757.19045@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>, somos@ces.cwru.edu
  14. (Michael Somos) wrote:
  15. > 
  16. > I sure hope they figure out the reason for the following oddity:
  17. > 
  18. > In[1]:= $Version
  19. > 
  20. > Out[1]= SPARC 2.0 (August 26, 1991)
  21. > 
  22. > In[2]:= Table[Limit[Exp[x]/x^n,x->Infinity],{n,4}]
  23. > 
  24. >                                               x
  25. >                                              E
  26. > Out[2]= {Infinity, Infinity, Infinity, Limit[--, x -> Infinity]}
  27. >                                               4
  28. >                                              x
  29. > 
  30. > A recent article in sci.math indicates that Maple has a similar
  31. > problem.  You can never trust computer programs too far.
  32. > --
  33. > Shalom, Michael Somos <somos@ces.cwru.edu>
  34.  
  35. In 2.0 Mathematica has added a Limit package which does this and much more
  36. difficult limits with no problem.  For example,
  37.  
  38. $Version
  39. "NeXT 2.0 (November 14, 1991)"
  40.  
  41. <<Calculus`Limit`
  42.  
  43. Table[Limit[Exp[x]/x^n,x->Infinity],{n,50}]
  44.  
  45. {DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  46.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  47.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  48.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  49.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  50.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  51.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  52.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  53.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  54.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  55.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  56.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  57.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  58.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  59.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  60.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  61.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  62.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  63.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  64.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  65.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  66.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  67.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  68.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1], 
  69.   DirectedInfinity[1], DirectedInfinity[1]}
  70.  
  71. John Derwent  derwent.1@nd.edu
  72.