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 Dragonfall Oct29-06 11:57 AM

Mathematica Help

1 Attachment(s)
I want mathematica to evaluate a certain expression (see attached) assuming that n is an integer. The answer is far from what it produces. Maple produces the right answer but I don't have access to it.

The expression is

$$\frac{\int_{-\pi}^{\pi}|\sin(x)|\cos(nx)\dx}{\int_{-\pi}^{\pi}\cos^2(nx)\dx}$$

 Stephan Hoyer Oct30-06 04:38 AM

You need to put a space between your n and x. Mathematica is treating nx as a single variable, which explains the funky result.

 FredGarvin Oct30-06 06:39 AM

One other thing to try...I don't have Mathematica in front of me here at work, but I do remember also reading an article about Mathematica getting into a bit of trouble in some cases when using the sybolic integration sign. If Stephan's tip doesn't help, you may try using "Integrate" instead of the symbolic operator.

Use '*' everywhere, to avoid possible problems. Doesn't look nice, though, but nevermind.

 Dragonfall Oct30-06 03:16 PM

The error was the missing *. Thanks for the help.