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1-Visitor
July 9, 2012
Solved

help on using symbolic solve and vectors with units

  • July 9, 2012
  • 4 replies
  • 3137 views

Hi,

I'm trying to use a the symbolic solve function to rearrange an equation and solve for a variable, but I'm having trouble because the answer is a vector with units.

Example: given the area of a circle, find the radius. I enter:

A:= 3.14 cm^2

(A = pi * r^2) solve,r->

and it spits out a column vector (displayed here as a row vector)... -> (1cm, -1cm)

and I want to set that to another variable, say, R1, so I now have:

A:= 3.14 cm^2

R1:= [ (A = pi * r^2) solve,r-> (1cm, -1cm) ]

R1= (1cm, -1cm)

I know it can only be the positive value, so I want to pull that value out:

R2:= R1[0

this gives me an error: R1 is red and the hover text reads "this value must be an array"

How can I set a variable to be the positive radius? (R= 1cm)

(I know I could just rearrange the equation here for the radius in the first place, but I want to keep it clear where I got the equation from. Also, this is just a simple example and I'd want to do it with something more complicated and want to avoid an algebra mistake)

Thank you very much!

Eli

(using Mathcad, version 14.0.0.163 [build 701291152] on windows7, 64bit)

Best answer by RichardJ

There's a couple of approaches

4 replies

RichardJ19-TanzaniteAnswer
19-Tanzanite
July 9, 2012

There's a couple of approaches

1-Visitor
July 10, 2012

Hi Richard,

thank you so much for your response. That is exactly what I was looking for BUT...

when I try the same thing you're doing, whether in the same document with different variables or in a new document, I still get an error. This time it's saying that my radius variable is undefined (with both methods).

I think I must be entering it wrong, although it looks the same as yours (from what I can see).

Any thoughts on what I'm doing differently? My file is attached.

thanks!

Eli

19-Tanzanite
July 10, 2012

It should work. Try downloading and installing the latest available service release for version 14.