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3.4.7 Solving Logical Combinations of Equations

When you give a list of equations to Solve, it assumes that you want all the equations to be satisfied simultaneously. It is also possible to give Solve more complicated logical combinations of equations.

Solve assumes that the equations x + y Equal 1 and x - y Equal 2 are simultaneously valid.

In[1]:=  Solve[{x + y Equal 1, x - y Equal 2}, {x, y}]

Out[1]=

Here is an alternative form, using the logical connective && explicitly.

In[2]:=  Solve[ x + y Equal 1 && x - y Equal 2, {x, y}]

Out[2]=

This specifies that either x + y Equal 1 or x - y Equal 2. Solve gives two solutions for x, corresponding to these two possibilities.

In[3]:=  Solve[ x + y Equal 1 || x - y Equal 2, x ]

Out[3]=

Solve gives three solutions to this equation.

In[4]:=  Solve[x^3 Equal x, x]

Out[4]=

If you explicitly include the assertion that x NotEqual 0, one of the previous solutions is suppressed.

In[5]:=  Solve[x^3 Equal x && x NotEqual 0, x]

Out[5]=

Here is a slightly more complicated example. Note that the precedence of || is lower than the precedence of &&, so the equation is interpreted as (x^3 Equal x && x NotEqual 1) || x^2 Equal 2, not x^3 Equal x && (x NotEqual 1 || x^2 Equal 2).

In[6]:=  Solve[x^3 Equal x && x NotEqual 1 || x^2 Equal 2 , x]

Out[6]=

When you use Solve, the final results you get are in the form of transformation rules. If you use Reduce or Eliminate, on the other hand, then your results are logical statements, which you can manipulate further.

This gives a logical statement representing the solutions of the equation x^2 Equal x.

In[7]:=  Reduce[x^2 Equal x, x]

Out[7]=

This finds values of x which satisfy x^5 Equal x but do not satisfy the statement representing the solutions of x^2 Equal x.

In[8]:=  Reduce[x^5 Equal x && !%, x]

Out[8]=

The logical statements produced by Reduce can be thought of as representations of the solution set for your equations. The logical connectives &&, || and so on then correspond to operations on these sets.

|| union of solution sets
&& intersection of solution sets
!eqns complement of a solution set
Implies[ , ] the part of that contains

Operations on solution sets.

You may often find it convenient to use special notations for logical connectives, as discussed in Section 3.10.4.

The input uses special notations for Implies and Or.

In[9]:=  Reduce[x^2 Equal 1 Implies (x Equal 1 Or x Equal -1), x]

Out[9]=



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