Groups > comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica > #16573

Re: Possible bug in Floor function?

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From	John Doty <noqsiaerospace@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica
Subject	Re: Possible bug in Floor function?
Date	Tue, 18 Feb 2014 03:46:57 +0000 (UTC)
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The problematic function here is Log. While Log[x,y] with exact numeric arguments will transform to an exact numeric value if possible, in other cases it transforms to Log[y]/Log[x]. But then, nothing short of FullSimplify[] seems to be able to reverse this. So, Floor[] sees Log[100]/Log[10] and cannot reduce it to an exact numerical value. It falls back on interval arithmetic, but that can't work at a point where Floor[] is discontinuous.

Floor[] seems to have no trouble with other hairy expressions that happen to equal integers, for example "((-1)^(1/3) + (-1)^(2/3))/Sqrt[-3]". But a mere Simplify[] reduces that to 1. Perhaps that's where the real bug is. Does Floor[] try Simplify[]? Maybe Simplify[] should be transforming things like Log[100]/Log[10].

On Saturday, February 15, 2014 11:13:49 PM UTC-5, Bob Hanlon wrote:
> It is sometimes better to simplify expressions prior to using numerical
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> techniques.
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> $Version
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> "9.0 for Mac OS X x86 (64-bit) (January 24, 2013)"
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> Off[Floor::meprec] (* Supressing error messages. This does not change the
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> results. *)
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> Floor[Log[10, x]] /. x -> 100 //
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>   FullSimplify // N
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> 2.
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> Floor[Log[10, x] /. x -> 100 //
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>    FullSimplify] // N
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> 2.
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> Oddly, using PowerExpand results in an integer result despite the use of N
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> Floor[Log[10, x]] /. x -> 100 //
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>   PowerExpand // N
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> 2
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> Floor[Log[10, x] /. x -> 100 //
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>    PowerExpand] // N
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> 2
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> Bob Hanlon
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> On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 4:02 AM, psycho_dad  wrote:
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> > Hi,
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> >
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> > I think I may have stumbled upon a possible bug in Floor. Evaluating the
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> > following gives the correct result:
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> >
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> > Floor[Log[10, 100.]]
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> > 2
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> > Evaluating it with a replacement and //N gives a message and the wrong
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> > result:
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> > Floor[Log[10, x]] /. x -> 100 // N
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> >
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> > Floor::meprec: Internal precision limit $MaxExtraPrecision = 50.` reached
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> > while evaluating Floor[Log[100]/Log[10]]. >>
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> >
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> > 1
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> > I'm on Math 9.0 + Win7, but Math 8 gives the same (wrong) result as well.
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> >
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> > Cheers
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> >
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> >

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Re: Possible bug in Floor function? Bob Hanlon <hanlonr357@gmail.com> - 2014-02-16 04:13 +0000
  Re: Possible bug in Floor function? John Doty <noqsiaerospace@gmail.com> - 2014-02-18 03:46 +0000

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