I really appreciate everyone's help, but I have two questions.
1. How can I learn the differences/relationships between lists,
arrays, and matrices? I've read the documentation (a few times), and
I never picked up the idea that if I define init[1], init[2], and init
[3], maxima wouldn't realize that "init" meant the 3 vector.
2. is there a way to define my vectors, dxdt, x, and init, so that
it will work to issue the command
rk(dxdt, x, init, [t,0,1,.1])
Thanks again!
Dan
On Jan 25, 2007, at 10:46 AM, sen1 at math.msu.edu wrote:
> My guess is that Dan wanted to write his system of DE's using matrix
> methods to simply express them. So, his original right hand side is a
> vector function whose components are 1x1
> matrices of functions instead of functions. So, all that was
> necessary to get it to work is to replace
>
> [dxdtau[1],dxdtau[2],dxdtau[3]]
>
> by
>
> [dxdtau[1][1],dxdtau[2][1],dxdtau[3][1]]
>
> Thus, instead of his right side of the DE looking like (using x,y,z
> instead of x[1],x[2],x[3] for easier writing)
>
> [[x^2 + y^2], [x - y], [z*y*z]], it should have looked like
>
> [x^2 + y^2, x - y, z*y*z]
>
> Hence, the simple fix above. I think Jaime's manual and the examples
> are fine as written. If one wants to use matrices of functions to
> define systems of equations, one just has to convert back to the
> standard thing maxima expects. I don't know if it is worth rewriting
> the code to take care of this. But, it might be worthwhile to put an
> example or two in the manual to show how to deal with this.
>
> -sen
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
> | Sheldon E. Newhouse | e-mail:
> sen1 at math.msu.edu |
> | Mathematics Department | |
> | Michigan State University | telephone:
> 517-355-9684 |
> | E. Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA | FAX:
> 517-432-1562 |
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> On Thu, 25 Jan 2007, Robert Dodier wrote:
>
>> Dan, it looks like the basic problem is that Maxima treats lists and
>> matrices in ways that are somewhat less than obvious.
>> I'll try to clarify some points.
>>
>> On 1/25/07, Jaime E. Villate <villate at fe.up.pt> wrote:
>>> On Thu, 2007-01-25 at 06:12 -0500, Dan Solomon wrote:
>>>> I don't understand your comment. Don't I have x as a 3-vector?
>>>
>>> No, you don't. x[1], x[2], x[3] have no relation to the variable x.
>>> x and x[1] are considered different variables in Maxima.
>>
>> Well, if the user writes x:[a, b, c] (i.e. assign a list to x) then
>> x[1], x[2], and x[3] are indeed related to x; those are the three
>> elements of x.
>>
>> Dan, I think you want x:[a, b, c], not x[1]:a, etc -- in the latter
>> form, x doesn't refer collectively to a, b, and c.
>> Whether that's a design flaw is a topic for a rainy day ....
>>
>>> The first argument given to rk must be a list of expressions. You
>>> first
>>> tried with a 3x1 matrix dxdtau. It won't work. You then tried
>>> [dxdtau[1],dxdtau[2],dxdtau[3]]
>>>
>>> this is not a list of expressions either. Please notice that since
>>> dxdtau is a matrix, dxdtau[1] is the first row of that matrix;
>>> namely,
>>> it is a list itself.
>>
>> Lists are not row or column matrices, and the elements of a
>> row or column matrix must be indexed by 2 indices (one of which
>> is always 1). Dan, probably what you want is to make dxdtau a list.
>>
>> Hope this helps -- I'm sorry if the treatment of lists and matrices
>> is confusing. I would be interested to hear your comments on this
>> point.
>>
>> Robert Dodier
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>>
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