WORKING WITH SYMBOLICS

About Working with Symbolics

To perform complex symbolic operations, you include keywords and modifiers that specify the type of symbolic manipulation you want to perform on the expression. You can modify a keywords functionality by using arguments or modifiers or both. For example, in float, 7, 7 is the argument. A list of operations you can perform with symbolic keywords and modifiers follows: Calculus operations Factoring and expanding expressions Simplifying and rewriting expressions Operations on variables

To Solve Equations Symbolically

Type the equation to solve using the Boolean equal to operator. Insert the symbolic evaluation operator, type the keyword solve in the placeholder, and then press Enter or click anywhere. Mathcad returns symbolic solutions to the equation, if possible. Otherwise, it returns numeric solutions. If the equation you are trying to solve has more than one solution, Mathcad returns the solutions in a vector, unless the solution is periodic.

To solve an equation whose right-hand side is set to 0, you only need to type the left-hand side of the equation.

If the equation contains more than one variable, specify a commaseparated list of variables you want to solve for after solve.

If your equation includes numbers with decimal points, solve returns a decimal answer.

To solve an equation subject to restrictions on the domain of the variable, for example, solving over the real numbers, use the keyword assume and a modifier with solve.

If an equation has a periodic solution, solve returns a single value from the set of solutions.

To see a more detailed solution, add the modifier fully after solve.

Mathcad returns the solution in terms of a newly generated variable that represents an arbitrary integer. The generated variable is preceded by an underscore to avoid conflicts with other variables you might have defined elsewhere in the worksheet.

To solve a system of equations symbolically, you can create a column vector with each element holding one equation in the system, and solve using the symbolics operator, specifying a column vector or a commaseparated list of system variables after the solve keyword. To solve an inequality, use >, <, , or in place of =. You can include constraint equations in a column vector to restrict the solution to a range, for example, y > 0. Solving systems of equations, inequality equations, or periodic equations may produce some special results that do not have meaning when evaluated numerically. You can find roots numerically using the root function, solve linear systems numerically using the lsolve function, or solve linear or nonlinear systems using a solve block.

To Control the Number of Decimal Places in Results

Place the cursor at the end of the expression you want to evaluate, 1.insert the symbolic evaluation operator, and type the keyword float in the placeholder.

2.Press Enter to evaluate the expression. Note The default number of result digits when using the keyword float is 20.

3.Type a number after float to specify a different number of displayed digits. Reducing the number of computed digits reduces the accuracy of the result. Do not use float as a way of reducing the size of the displayed result. To reduce the number of displayed digits without affecting the accuracy of the result, type integers in the expression in decimal form. Type the basic symbolic evaluation

Type the same expression in decimal form:

Use the float modifier and specify the number of digits to display

To Find the Coefficients of a Polynomial

Choose one or more of the methods below: 1. Place the cursor at the end of the polynomial, insert the symbolic evaluation operator, and type the keyword coeffs in the placeholder.

Here, the first entry of the vector is 0 because the constant term of the polynomial is 0.

2. To return a second column containing the exponents corresponding to each coefficient, type the optional modifier degree after coeffs.

3. If the polynomial contains more than one variable, type a comma after coeffs, followed by the variable with respect to which you want the coefficients expressed. Mathcad returns a vector containing the coefficients of the polynomial. If all the exponents are positive, the first element of the vector corresponds to the constant term. If all exponents are negative, the last element corresponds to the constant term. Otherwise, Mathcad returns the coefficients for the smallest exponent to the largest, in order, with zeros for any skipped exponents in the expression, and always including the constant term.

For an expression containing several variables, Mathcad writes the expression as a polynomial in the variable you specify after coeffs and in this case x. This is the same operation that the keyword collect performs. The coefficients that Mathcad returns are expressions involving the variables other than the one you specify, so if you specify variable y, Mathcad returns the following result:

About Symbolic Calculus

With Mathcad you can perform the following calculus operations symbolically: Limits Derivatives and integrals Partial fractions Taylor series Continued fractions Symbolic transformsFourier, Laplace, and z-transforms, and their inverses