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belsherj1-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 27, 2011
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Symbolic error message "This value must be a matrix"

  • June 27, 2011
  • 2 replies
  • 2168 views

I'm using MathCad to create a set of linear equations. Everything works as intended as long as I use integer values for some of the elements, but as soon as I change these values to nonintegers I get a "This value must be an Matrix error." I'm sure that I am missing something obvious. The revelant portion of the worksheet is attached below. Thanks in advance.

Best answer by RichardJ

It is because you are using the symbol "pi", which is a built in constant. When you enter a floating point number the symbolic processor tries to do a floating point evaluation of the entire expression, which means it tries to evaluate pi[n for each n. That of course is not possible, because pi is not a vector of numbers. Change "pi" to something else.

2 replies

RichardJ19-TanzaniteAnswer
19-Tanzanite
June 27, 2011

It is because you are using the symbol "pi", which is a built in constant. When you enter a floating point number the symbolic processor tries to do a floating point evaluation of the entire expression, which means it tries to evaluate pi[n for each n. That of course is not possible, because pi is not a vector of numbers. Change "pi" to something else.

belsherj1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
June 27, 2011

That seem embarrassingly obvious. Thanks for the help!

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