Find the 1st intersection of 2 PDF functions with Mathematica - wolfram-mathematica

With Mathematica 8.0.1.0, I have used FindRoot[] to identify the intersection of two 2 pdf functions.
But if I have pdf functions that intersect at more than one point, and I have the upper limit of the x axis range beyond the second intersection, FindRoot[] only returns the second intersection.
pdf1 = 1/x 0.5795367855565214` (E^(
11.170058830053032` (-1.525439351903338` - Log[x]))
Erfc[1.6962452696714152` (-0.5548887795964352` - Log[x])] +
E^(1.2932713057519` (2.60836043407439` + Log[x]))
Erfc[1.6962452696714152` (2.720730943938539` + Log[x])]);
pdf2 = 1/x 0.4648445097126269` (E^(
5.17560914275408` (-2.5500941338198615` - Log[x]))
Erfc[1.7747318880142482` (-2.139288893723375` - Log[x])] +
E^(1.1332542415053757` (3.050849516581922` + Log[x]))
Erfc[1.7747318880142482` (3.1407996592474956` + Log[x])]);
Plot[{pdf1, pdf2}, {x, 0, 0.5}, PlotRange -> All] (* Shows 1st intersection *)
Plot[{pdf1, pdf2}, {x, 0.4, 0.5}, PlotRange -> All] (* Shows 2nd intersection *)
{x /. FindRoot[pdf1 == pdf2, {x, 0.00001, 0.5}],
x /. FindRoot[pdf1 == pdf2, {x, 0.00001, 0.4}]}
The above plots show the issue. When plotted they intersect at two points:
{0.464719, 0.0452777}
respectively.
As I can't know before hand if I'll have a second intersection and I don't know where it might fall on the x axis if I did, can anyone suggest a way to have FindRoot[] only return the first intersection rather than the second?
If not, can anyone suggest another way to go about it?

With FindRoot[], you can only get a single root for a given starting point. Iterating through different options is cumbersome and you might not even get the desired result for certain edge cases unless you hit upon the right choice of starting point.
In this case, something like NSolve or Reduce might be a better option. If you know that your expressions decay, using a reasonable upper bound for possible values of x, you can use the following, which is pretty quick and will give you all roots.
NSolve[{pdf1 == pdf2, 0 < x < 1}, x] // Timing
Out[1]= {0.073495, {{x -> 0.0452777}, {x -> 0.464719}}}

How about the following:
First you have to find all roots in one step. I do this with
roots=Reduce[pdf1==pdf2&&0.000001<x<0.5,x]
And then you could take the minimum (first root on the x axis in your special case).
rootMin=Min[N[x/.{ToRules[roots]}]]

Related

How to preserve results from Maximize in Mathematica?

I aim to calculate and preserve the results from the maximization of a function with two arguments and one exogenous parameter, when the maximum can not be derived (in closed form) by maximize. For instance, let
f[x_,y_,a_]=Max[0,Min[a-y,1-x-y]
be the objective function where a is positive. The maximization shall take place over [0,1]^2, therefore I set
m[a_]=Maximize[{f[x, y, a], 0 <= x <= 1 && 0 <= y <= 1 && 0 <= a}, {x,y}]
Obviously m can be evaluated at any point a and it is therefore possible to plot the maximizing x by employing
Plot[x /. m[a][[2]], {a, 0.01, 1}]
As I need to do several plots and further derivations containing the optimal solutions x and y (which of course are functions of a), i would like to preserve/save the results from the optimization for further use. Is there an elegant way to do this, or do I have to write some kind of loop to extract the values myself?
Now that I've seen the full text of your comment on my original comment, I suspect that you do understand the differences between Set and SetDelayed well enough. I think what you may be looking for is memoisation, sometimes implemented a bit like this;
f[x_,y_] := f[x,y] = Max[0,Min[a-y,1-x-y]]
When you evaluate, for example f[3,4] for the first time it will evaluate to the entire expression to the right of the :=. The rhs is the assignment f[3,4] = Max[0,Min[a-y,1-x-y]]. Next time you evaluate f[3,4] Mathematica already has a value for it so doesn't need to recompute it, it just recalls it. In this example the stored value would be Max[0,Min[a-4,-6]] of course.
I remain a little uncertain of what you are trying to do so this answer may not be any use to you at all.
Simple approach
results = Table[{x, y, a} /. m[a][[2]], {a, 0.01, 1, .01}]
ListPlot[{#[[3]], #[[1]]} & /# results, Joined -> True]
(The Set = is ok here so long as 'a' is not previosly defined )
If you want to utilise Plot[]s automatic evaluation take a look at Reap[]/Sow[]
{p, data} = Reap[Plot[x /. Sow[m[a]][[2]], {a, 0.01, 1}]];
Show[p]
(this takes a few minutes as the function output is a mess..).
hmm try this again: assuming you want x,y,a and the minimum value:
{p, data} = Reap[Plot[x /. Sow[{a, m[a]}][[2, 2]], {a, 0.01, .1}]];
Show[p]
results = {#[[1]], x /. #[[2, 2]], y /. #[[2, 2]], #[[2, 1]]} & /# data[[1]]
BTW Your function appears to be independent of x over some ranges which is why the plot is a mess..

Mathematica: Tangent of Two Curves

I asked this question yesterday but not sure if I made clear what I was looking for. Say I have two curves defined as f[x_]:=... and g[x_]:=... as shown below. I want to use Mathematica to determine the abscissa intersection of the tangent to both curves and store value for each curve separately. Perhaps this is really a trivial task, but I do appreciate the help. I am an intermediate with Mathematica but this is one I haven't been able to find a solution to elsewhere.
f[x_] := x^2
g[x_] := (x - 2)^2 + 3
sol = Solve[(f[x1] - g[x2])/(x1 - x2) == f'[x1] == g'[x2], {x1, x2}, Reals]
(* ==> {{x1 -> 3/4, x2 -> 11/4}} *)
eqns = FlattenAt[{f[x], g[x], f'[x1] x + g[x2] - f'[x1] x2 /. sol}, 3];
Plot[eqns, {x, -2, 4}, Frame -> True, Axes -> None]
Please note that there will be many functions f and g for which you won't find a solution in this way. In that case you will have to resort to numerical problem solving methods.
You just need so solve a system of simultaneous equations:
The common tangent line is y = a x + b.
The common slope is a = f'(x1) = g'(x2)
The common points are a x0 + b = f(x0) and a x1 + b = g(x1).
Depending on the nature of the functions f and g this may have no, one, or many solutions.

Telling Plot to style vector-valued black-box functions in Mathematica

Suppose I write a black-box functions, which evaluates an expensive complex valued function numerically, and then returns real and imaginary part.
fun[x_?InexactNumberQ] := Module[{f = Sin[x]}, {Re[f], Im[f]}]
Then I can use it in Plot as usual, but Plot does not recognize that the function returns a pair, and colors both curves the same color. How does one tell Mathematica that the function specified always returns a vector of a fixed length ? Or how does one style this plot ?
EDIT: Given attempts attempted at answering the problem, I think that avoiding double reevalution is only possible if styling is performed as a post-processing of the graphics obtained. Most likely the following is not robust, but it seems to work for my example:
gr = Plot[fun[x + I], {x, -1, 1}, ImageSize -> 250];
k = 1;
{gr, gr /. {el_Line :> {ColorData[1][k++], el}}}
One possibility is:
Plot[{#[[1]], #[[2]]}, {x, -1, 1}, PlotStyle -> {{Red}, {Blue}}] &# fun[x + I]
Edit
If your functions are not really smooth (ie. almost linear!), there is not much you can do to prevent the double evaluation process, as it will happen (sort of) anyway due to the nature of the Plot[] mesh exploration algorithm.
For example:
fun[x_?InexactNumberQ] := Module[{f = Sin[3 x]}, {Re[f], Im[f]}];
Plot[{#[[1]], #[[2]]}, {x, -1, 1}, Mesh -> All,
PlotStyle -> {{Red}, {Blue}}] &#fun[x + I]
I don't think there's a good solution to this if your function is expensive to compute. Plot will only acknowledge that there are several curves to be styled if you either give it an explicit list of functions as argument, or you give it a function that it can evaluate to a list of values.
The reason you might not want to do what #belisarius suggested is that it would compute the function twice (twice as slow).
However, you could use memoization to avoid this (i.e. the f[x_] := f[x] = ... construct), and go with his solution. But this can fill up your memory quickly if you work with real valued functions. To prevent this you may want to try what I wrote about caching only a limited number of values, to avoid filling up the memory: http://szhorvat.net/pelican/memoization-in-mathematica.html
If possible for your actual application, one way is to allow fun to take symbolic input in addition to just numeric, and then Evaluate it inside of Plot:
fun2[x_] := Module[{f = Sin[x]}, {Re[f], Im[f]}]
Plot[Evaluate[fun2[x + I]], {x, -1, 1}]
This has the same effect as if you had instead evaluated:
Plot[{-Im[Sinh[1 - I x]], Re[Sinh[1 - I x]]}, {x, -1, 1}]

Problem performing a substitution in a multiple derivative

I have a basic problem in Mathematica which has puzzled me for a while. I want to take the m'th derivative of x*Exp[t*x], then evaluate this at x=0. But the following does not work correct. Please share your thoughts.
D[x*Exp[t*x], {x, m}] /. x -> 0
Also what does the error mean
General::ivar: 0 is not a valid variable.
Edit: my previous example (D[Exp[t*x], {x, m}] /. x -> 0) was trivial. So I made it harder. :)
My question is: how to force it to do the derivative evaluation first, then do substitution.
As pointed out by others, (in general) Mathematica does not know how to take the derivative an arbitrary number of times, even if you specify that number is a positive integer.
This means that the D[expr,{x,m}] command remains unevaluated and then when you set x->0, it's now trying to take the derivative with respect to a constant, which yields the error message.
In general, what you want is the m'th derivative of the function evaluated at zero.
This can be written as
Derivative[m][Function[x,x Exp[t x]]][0]
or
Derivative[m][# Exp[t #]&][0]
You then get the table of coefficients
In[2]:= Table[%, {m, 1, 10}]
Out[2]= {1, 2 t, 3 t^2, 4 t^3, 5 t^4, 6 t^5, 7 t^6, 8 t^7, 9 t^8, 10 t^9}
But a little more thought shows that you really just want the m'th term in the series, so SeriesCoefficient does what you want:
In[3]:= SeriesCoefficient[x*Exp[t*x], {x, 0, m}]
Out[3]= Piecewise[{{t^(-1 + m)/(-1 + m)!, m >= 1}}, 0]
The final output is the general form of the m'th derivative. The PieceWise is not really necessary, since the expression actually holds for all non-negative integers.
Thanks to your update, it's clear what's happening here. Mathematica doesn't actually calculate the derivative; you then replace x with 0, and it ends up looking at this:
D[Exp[t*0],{0,m}]
which obviously is going to run into problems, since 0 isn't a variable.
I'll assume that you want the mth partial derivative of that function w.r.t. x. The t variable suggests that it might be a second independent variable.
It's easy enough to do without Mathematica: D[Exp[t*x], {x, m}] = t^m Exp[t*x]
And if you evaluate the limit as x approaches zero, you get t^m, since lim(Exp[t*x]) = 1. Right?
Update: Let's try it for x*exp(t*x)
the mth partial derivative w.r.t. x is easily had from Wolfram Alpha:
t^(m-1)*exp(t*x)(t*x + m)
So if x = 0 you get m*t^(m-1).
Q.E.D.
Let's see what is happening with a little more detail:
When you write:
D[Sin[x], {x, 1}]
you get an expression in with x in it
Cos[x]
That is because the x in the {x,1} part matches the x in the Sin[x] part, and so Mma understands that you want to make the derivative for that symbol.
But this x, does NOT act as a Block variable for that statement, isolating its meaning from any other x you have in your program, so it enables the chain rule. For example:
In[85]:= z=x^2;
D[Sin[z],{x,1}]
Out[86]= 2 x Cos[x^2]
See? That's perfect! But there is a price.
The price is that the symbols inside the derivative get evaluated as the derivative is taken, and that is spoiling your code.
Of course there are a lot of tricks to get around this. Some have already been mentioned. From my point of view, one clear way to undertand what is happening is:
f[x_] := x*Exp[t*x];
g[y_, m_] := D[f[x], {x, m}] /. x -> y;
{g[p, 2], g[0, 1]}
Out:
{2 E^(p t) t + E^(p t) p t^2, 1}
HTH!

Solving vector equations in Mathematica

I'm trying to figure out how to use Mathematica to solve systems of equations where some of the variables and coefficients are vectors. A simple example would be something like
where I know A, V, and the magnitude of P, and I have to solve for t and the direction of P. (Basically, given two rays A and B, where I know everything about A but only the origin and magnitude of B, figure out what the direction of B must be such that it intersects A.)
Now, I know how to solve this sort of thing by hand, but that's slow and error-prone, so I was hoping I could use Mathematica to speed things along and error-check me. However, I can't see how to get Mathematica to symbolically solve equations involving vectors like this.
I've looked in the VectorAnalysis package, without finding anything there that seems relevant; meanwhile the Linear Algebra package only seems to have a solver for linear systems (which this isn't, since I don't know t or P, just |P|).
I tried doing the simpleminded thing: expanding the vectors into their components (pretend they're 3D) and solving them as if I were trying to equate two parametric functions,
Solve[
{ Function[t, {Bx + Vx*t, By + Vy*t, Bz + Vz*t}][t] ==
Function[t, {Px*t, Py*t, Pz*t}][t],
Px^2 + Py^2 + Pz^2 == Q^2 } ,
{ t, Px, Py, Pz }
]
but the "solution" that spits out is a huge mess of coefficients and congestion. It also forces me to expand out each of the dimensions I feed it.
What I want is a nice symbolic solution in terms of dot products, cross products, and norms:
But I can't see how to tell Solve that some of the coefficients are vectors instead of scalars.
Is this possible? Can Mathematica give me symbolic solutions on vectors? Or should I just stick with No.2 Pencil technology?
(Just to be clear, I'm not interested in the solution to the particular equation at top -- I'm asking if I can use Mathematica to solve computational geometry problems like that generally without my having to express everything as an explicit matrix of {Ax, Ay, Az}, etc.)
With Mathematica 7.0.1.0
Clear[A, V, P];
A = {1, 2, 3};
V = {4, 5, 6};
P = {P1, P2, P3};
Solve[A + V t == P, P]
outputs:
{{P1 -> 1 + 4 t, P2 -> 2 + 5 t, P3 -> 3 (1 + 2 t)}}
Typing out P = {P1, P2, P3} can be annoying if the array or matrix is large.
Clear[A, V, PP, P];
A = {1, 2, 3};
V = {4, 5, 6};
PP = Array[P, 3];
Solve[A + V t == PP, PP]
outputs:
{{P[1] -> 1 + 4 t, P[2] -> 2 + 5 t, P[3] -> 3 (1 + 2 t)}}
Matrix vector inner product:
Clear[A, xx, bb];
A = {{1, 5}, {6, 7}};
xx = Array[x, 2];
bb = Array[b, 2];
Solve[A.xx == bb, xx]
outputs:
{{x[1] -> 1/23 (-7 b[1] + 5 b[2]), x[2] -> 1/23 (6 b[1] - b[2])}}
Matrix multiplication:
Clear[A, BB, d];
A = {{1, 5}, {6, 7}};
BB = Array[B, {2, 2}];
d = {{6, 7}, {8, 9}};
Solve[A.BB == d]
outputs:
{{B[1, 1] -> -(2/23), B[2, 1] -> 28/23, B[1, 2] -> -(4/23), B[2, 2] -> 33/23}}
The dot product has an infix notation built in just use a period for the dot.
I do not think the cross product does however. This is how you use the Notation package to make one. "X" will become our infix form of Cross. I suggest coping the example from the Notation, Symbolize and InfixNotation tutorial. Also use the Notation Palette which helps abstract away some of the Box syntax.
Clear[X]
Needs["Notation`"]
Notation[x_ X y_\[DoubleLongLeftRightArrow]Cross[x_, y_]]
Notation[NotationTemplateTag[
RowBox[{x_, , X, , y_, }]] \[DoubleLongLeftRightArrow]
NotationTemplateTag[RowBox[{ ,
RowBox[{Cross, [,
RowBox[{x_, ,, y_}], ]}]}]]]
{a, b, c} X {x, y, z}
outputs:
{-c y + b z, c x - a z, -b x + a y}
The above looks horrible but when using the Notation Palette it looks like:
Clear[X]
Needs["Notation`"]
Notation[x_ X y_\[DoubleLongLeftRightArrow]Cross[x_, y_]]
{a, b, c} X {x, y, z}
I have run into some quirks using the notation package in the past versions of mathematica so be careful.
I don't have a general solution for you by any means (MathForum may be the better way to go), but there are some tips that I can offer you. The first is to do the expansion of your vectors into components in a more systematic way. For instance, I would solve the equation you wrote as follows.
rawSol = With[{coords = {x, y, z}},
Solve[
Flatten[
{A[#] + V[#] t == P[#] t & /# coords,
Total[P[#]^2 & /# coords] == P^2}],
Flatten[{t, P /# coords}]]];
Then you can work with the rawSol variable more easily. Next, because you are referring the vector components in a uniform way (always matching the Mathematica pattern v_[x|y|z]), you can define rules that will aid in simplifying them. I played around a bit before coming up with the following rules:
vectorRules =
{forms___ + vec_[x]^2 + vec_[y]^2 + vec_[z]^2 :> forms + vec^2,
forms___ + c_. v1_[x]*v2_[x] + c_. v1_[y]*v2_[y] + c_. v1_[z]*v2_[z] :>
forms + c v1\[CenterDot]v2};
These rules will simplify the relationships for vector norms and dot products (cross-products are left as a likely painful exercise for the reader). EDIT: rcollyer pointed out that you can make c optional in the rule for dot products, so you only need two rules for norms and dot products.
With these rules, I was immediately able to simplify the solution for t into a form very close to yours:
In[3] := t /. rawSol //. vectorRules // Simplify // InputForm
Out[3] = {(A \[CenterDot] V - Sqrt[A^2*(P^2 - V^2) +
(A \[CenterDot] V)^2])/(P^2 - V^2),
(A \[CenterDot] V + Sqrt[A^2*(P^2 - V^2) +
(A \[CenterDot] V)^2])/(P^2 - V^2)}
Like I said, it's not a complete way of solving these kinds of problems by any means, but if you're careful about casting the problem into terms that are easy to work with from a pattern-matching and rule-replacement standpoint, you can go pretty far.
I've taken a somewhat different approach to this issue. I've made some definitions that return this output:
Patterns that are known to be vector quantities may be specified using vec[_], patterns that have an OverVector[] or OverHat[] wrapper (symbols with a vector or hat over them) are assumed to be vectors by default.
The definitions are experimental and should be treated as such, but they seem to work well. I expect to add to this over time.
Here are the definitions. The need to be pasted into a Mathematica Notebook cell and converted to StandardForm to see them properly.
Unprotect[vExpand,vExpand$,Cross,Plus,Times,CenterDot];
(* vec[pat] determines if pat is a vector quantity.
vec[pat] can be used to define patterns that should be treated as vectors.
Default: Patterns are assumed to be scalar unless otherwise defined *)
vec[_]:=False;
(* Symbols with a vector hat, or vector operations on vectors are assumed to be vectors *)
vec[OverVector[_]]:=True;
vec[OverHat[_]]:=True;
vec[u_?vec+v_?vec]:=True;
vec[u_?vec-v_?vec]:=True;
vec[u_?vec\[Cross]v_?vec]:=True;
vec[u_?VectorQ]:=True;
(* Placeholder for matrix types *)
mat[a_]:=False;
(* Anything not defined as a vector or matrix is a scalar *)
scal[x_]:=!(vec[x]\[Or]mat[x]);
scal[x_?scal+y_?scal]:=True;scal[x_?scal y_?scal]:=True;
(* Scalars times vectors are vectors *)
vec[a_?scal u_?vec]:=True;
mat[a_?scal m_?mat]:=True;
vExpand$[u_?vec\[Cross](v_?vec+w_?vec)]:=vExpand$[u\[Cross]v]+vExpand$[u\[Cross]w];
vExpand$[(u_?vec+v_?vec)\[Cross]w_?vec]:=vExpand$[u\[Cross]w]+vExpand$[v\[Cross]w];
vExpand$[u_?vec\[CenterDot](v_?vec+w_?vec)]:=vExpand$[u\[CenterDot]v]+vExpand$[u\[CenterDot]w];
vExpand$[(u_?vec+v_?vec)\[CenterDot]w_?vec]:=vExpand$[u\[CenterDot]w]+vExpand$[v\[CenterDot]w];
vExpand$[s_?scal (u_?vec\[Cross]v_?vec)]:=Expand[s] vExpand$[u\[Cross]v];
vExpand$[s_?scal (u_?vec\[CenterDot]v_?vec)]:=Expand[s] vExpand$[u\[CenterDot]v];
vExpand$[Plus[x__]]:=vExpand$/#Plus[x];
vExpand$[s_?scal,Plus[x__]]:=Expand[s](vExpand$/#Plus[x]);
vExpand$[Times[x__]]:=vExpand$/#Times[x];
vExpand[e_]:=e//.e:>Expand[vExpand$[e]]
(* Some simplification rules *)
(u_?vec\[Cross]u_?vec):=\!\(\*OverscriptBox["0", "\[RightVector]"]\);
(u_?vec+\!\(\*OverscriptBox["0", "\[RightVector]"]\)):=u;
0v_?vec:=\!\(\*OverscriptBox["0", "\[RightVector]"]\);
\!\(\*OverscriptBox["0", "\[RightVector]"]\)\[CenterDot]v_?vec:=0;
v_?vec\[CenterDot]\!\(\*OverscriptBox["0", "\[RightVector]"]\):=0;
(a_?scal u_?vec)\[Cross]v_?vec :=a u\[Cross]v;u_?vec\[Cross](a_?scal v_?vec ):=a u\[Cross]v;
(a_?scal u_?vec)\[CenterDot]v_?vec :=a u\[CenterDot]v;
u_?vec\[CenterDot](a_?scal v_?vec) :=a u\[CenterDot]v;
(* Stealing behavior from Dot *)
Attributes[CenterDot]=Attributes[Dot];
Protect[vExpand,vExpand$,Cross,Plus,Times,CenterDot];

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