Delphi LogN and Power - SuperEllipse functions - algorithm - delphi

How can I isolate the 'slope' parameter in the super ellipse function given by:
MyY := (1.0- (power(1.0-power(x, 2.0/Slope), Slope*0.5)))
when I know 'x' and 'MyY' ?
(the function is always used in the range of 0 to 1).

No easy way. This equation cannot be solved algebraically. You need to use numerical methods to find the solution (e.g. Newton's method).

I don't need to solve it, to be more precise when i call the function 'MyY :=...', 'x' and 'Slope' are known.
I just need to express it in function of Slope. Instead of MyY := ... I need Slope := ... and I know 'x' and 'MyY'. I just need to express the transfert function in another way, the problem is when using logN I get someting like: (x is always 0.5 , y varies but is know)
Slope/2 = LogN(power(1.0-power(0.5, 2.0/Slope)) (whatever the '1 -', this is not what's stucking me)
from this I cannot move or clear '2.0/slope' from the right part of the equation.
On the software way it's used to keep a correlation between a control point and the cursor mouse.
It's just like this: (by analogy)
MyY := power(x,slope) // MyY := (1.0- (power(1.0-power(x, 2.0/Slope), Slope*0.5)))
slope := Logn(x,MyY) // slope := ?
I just need to express it in another way.

Related

How to properly substitute a value to the variable used in formula in wxMaxima?

I calculated a velocity vector and its module from the equations of motion of a point in wxMaxima:
x:3*sin(4*t);
y:2*cos(4*t);
r:[x,y];
v:diff(r,t,1);
v_mod:sqrt(v.v);
Now I would like to calculate the velocity for t=5. How can I do this? When I add (t) and := everywhere, like this:
x(t):=3*sin(4*t);
y(t):=2*cos(4*t);
r(t):=[x(t),y(t)];
v(t):=diff(r(t),t,1);
v_mod(t):=sqrt(v(t).v(t));
and then add this line at the end:
v_mod(5);
I get the following error:
diff: second argument must be a variable; found 5
What am I doing wrong here?
The problem is that when you say v(5), you're getting diff(<something>, 5) and Maxima is complaining about that.
Try v(t) := at(diff(r(u), u), u = t) -- i.e., differentiate wrt a dummy variable u, and then evaluate that derivative at u equal to the argument t.
There are other ways to go about it. If at doesn't work for you, we can try something else.

Plotting dual recursion equations with wxplot2d always exceeds control stack

I have the following Maxima code:
A[t] :=
if t=0 then A0
else (a+b)*A[t-1]+B[t-1]+c
;
B[t] :=
if t=0 then B0
else (a-b)*B[t-1]+c
;
a:0.1;
b:0.1;
c:1;
A0:100;
B0:0;
wxplot2d(A[t], [t, 0, 100]);
The only remotely weird thing I can think of is that recurion equation A depends on recurion equation B. I would think everything else is extremely basic.
But when I run it, I always get the following error repeated multiple times and no plot.
Maxima encountered a Lisp error:
Control stack exhausted (no more space for function call frames).
This is probably due to heavily nested or infinitely recursive function
calls, or a tail call that SBCL cannot or has not optimized away.
Even when I plot from time steps 0 to 1 with wxplot2d(A[t], [t, 0, 1]);, which by my count would only be two recursions and one external function reference, I still get the same error. Is there no way to have Maxima plot these equations?
I find that the following seems to work.
myvalues: makelist ([t, A[t]], t, 0, 100);
wxplot2d ([discrete, myvalues]);
Just to be clear, A[t] := ..., with square brackets, defines what is called an array function Maxima, which is a memoizing function (i.e. remembers previously calculated values). An ordinary, non-memoizing function is defined as A(t) := ..., with parentheses.
Given that A and B are defined only for nonnegative integers, it makes sense that they should be memoizing functions, so there's no need to change it.

Maxima: Is there any way to make functions defined within the main function be local, in a similar way to local variables?

I wonder if there is any way to make functions defined within the main function be local, in a similar way to local variables. For example, in this function that calculates the gradient of a scalar function,
grad(var,f) := block([aux],
aux : [gradient, DfDx[i]],
gradient : [],
DfDx[i] := diff(f(x_1,x_2,x_3),var[i],1),
for i in [1,2,3] do (
gradient : append(gradient, [DfDx[i]])
),
return(gradient)
)$
The variable gradient that has been defined inside the main function grad(var,f) has no effect outside the main function, as it is inside the aux list. However, I have observed that the function DfDx, despite being inside the aux list, does have an effect outside the main function.
Is there any way to make the sub-functions defined inside the main function to be local only, in a similar way to what can be made with local variables? (I know that one can kill them once they have been used, but perhaps there is a more elegant way)
To address the problem you are needing to solve here, another way to compute the gradient is to say
grad(var, e) := makelist(diff(e, var1), var1, var);
and then you can say for example
grad([x, y, z], sin(x)*y/z);
to get
cos(x) y sin(x) sin(x) y
[--------, ------, - --------]
z z 2
z
(There isn't a built-in gradient function; this is an oversight.)
About local functions, bear in mind that all function definitions are global. However you can approximate a local function definition via local, which saves and restores all properties of a symbol. Since the function definition is a property, local has the effect of temporarily wiping out an existing function definition and later restoring it. In between you can create a temporary function definition. E.g.
foo(x) := 2*x;
bar(y) := block(local(foo), foo(x) := x - 1, foo(y));
bar(100); /* output is 99 */
foo(100); /* output is 200 */
However, I don't this you need to use local -- just makelist plus diff is enough to compute the gradient.
There is more to say about Maxima's scope rules, named and unnamed functions, etc. I'll try to come back to this question tomorrow.
To compute the gradient, my advice is to call makelist and diff as shown in my first answer. Let me take this opportunity to address some related topics.
I'll paste the definition of grad shown in the problem statement and use that to make some comments.
grad(var,f) := block([aux],
aux : [gradient, DfDx[i]],
gradient : [],
DfDx[i] := diff(f(x_1,x_2,x_3),var[i],1),
for i in [1,2,3] do (
gradient : append(gradient, [DfDx[i]])
),
return(gradient)
)$
(1) Maxima works mostly with expressions as opposed to functions. That's not causing a problem here, I just want to make it clear. E.g. in general one has to say diff(f(x), x) when f is a function, instead of diff(f, x), likewise integrate(f(x), ...) instead of integrate(f, ...).
(2) When gradient and Dfdx are to be the local variables, you have to name them in the list of variables for block. E.g. block([gradient, Dfdx], ...) -- Maxima won't understand block([aux], aux: ...).
(3) Note that a function defined with square brackets instead of parentheses, e.g. f[x] := ... instead of f(x) := ..., is a so-called array function in Maxima. An array function is a memoizing function, i.e. if f[x] is called two or more times, the return value is only computed once, and then returned every time thereafter. Sometimes that's a useful optimization when the domain of the function comprises a finite set.
(4) Bear in mind that x_1, x_2, x_3, are distinct symbols, not related to each other, and not related to x[1], x[2], x[3], even if they are displayed the same. My advice is to work with subscripted symbols x[i] when i is a variable.
(5) About building up return values, try to arrange to compute the whole thing at one go, instead of growing the result incrementally. In this case, makelist is preferable to for plus append.
(6) The return function in Maxima acts differently than in other programming languages; it's a little hard to explain. A function returns the value of the last expression which was evaluated, so if gradient is that last expression, you can just write grad(var, f) := block(..., gradient).
Hope this helps, I know it's obscure and complex. The Maxima programming language was not designed before being implemented, and some of the decisions are clearly questionable at the long interval of more than 50 years (!) later. That's okay, they were figuring it out as they went along. There was not a body of established results which could provide a point of reference; the original authors were contributing to what's considered common knowledge today.

Performing an "online" linear interpolation

I have a problem where I need to do a linear interpolation on some data as it is acquired from a sensor (it's technically position data, but the nature of the data doesn't really matter). I'm doing this now in matlab, but since I will eventually migrate this code to other languages, I want to keep the code as simple as possible and not use any complicated matlab-specific/built-in functions.
My implementation initially seems OK, but when checking my work against matlab's built-in interp1 function, it seems my implementation isn't perfect, and I have no idea why. Below is the code I'm using on a dataset already fully collected, but as I loop through the data, I act as if I only have the current sample and the previous sample, which mirrors the problem I will eventually face.
%make some dummy data
np = 109; %number of data points for x and y
x_data = linspace(3,98,np) + (normrnd(0.4,0.2,[1,np]));
y_data = normrnd(2.5, 1.5, [1,np]);
%define the query points the data will be interpolated over
qp = [1:100];
kk=2; %indexes through the data
cc = 1; %indexes through the query points
qpi = qp(cc); %qpi is the current query point in the loop
y_interp = qp*nan; %this will hold our solution
while kk<=length(x_data)
kk = kk+1; %update the data counter
%perform online interpolation
if cc<length(qp)-1
if qpi>=y_data(kk-1) %the query point, of course, has to be in-between the current value and the next value of x_data
y_interp(cc) = myInterp(x_data(kk-1), x_data(kk), y_data(kk-1), y_data(kk), qpi);
end
if qpi>x_data(kk), %if the current query point is already larger than the current sample, update the sample
kk = kk+1;
else %otherwise, update the query point to ensure its in between the samples for the next iteration
cc = cc + 1;
qpi = qp(cc);
%It is possible that if the change in x_data is greater than the resolution of the query
%points, an update like the above wont work. In this case, we must lag the data
if qpi<x_data(kk),
kk=kk-1;
end
end
end
end
%get the correct interpolation
y_interp_correct = interp1(x_data, y_data, qp);
%plot both solutions to show the difference
figure;
plot(y_interp,'displayname','manual-solution'); hold on;
plot(y_interp_correct,'k--','displayname','matlab solution');
leg1 = legend('show');
set(leg1,'Location','Best');
ylabel('interpolated points');
xlabel('query points');
Note that the "myInterp" function is as follows:
function yi = myInterp(x1, x2, y1, y2, qp)
%linearly interpolate the function value y(x) over the query point qp
yi = y1 + (qp-x1) * ( (y2-y1)/(x2-x1) );
end
And here is the plot showing that my implementation isn't correct :-(
Can anyone help me find where the mistake is? And why? I suspect it has something to do with ensuring that the query point is in-between the previous and current x-samples, but I'm not sure.
The problem in your code is that you at times call myInterp with a value of qpi that is outside of the bounds x_data(kk-1) and x_data(kk). This leads to invalid extrapolation results.
Your logic of looping over kk rather than cc is very confusing to me. I would write a simple for loop over cc, which are the points at which you want to interpolate. For each of these points, advance kk, if necessary, such that qp(cc) is in between x_data(kk) and x_data(kk+1) (you can use kk-1 and kk instead if you prefer, just initialize kk=2 to ensure that kk-1 exists, I just find starting at kk=1 more intuitive).
To simplify the logic here, I'm limiting the values in qp to be inside the limits of x_data, so that we don't need to test to ensure that x_data(kk+1) exists, nor that x_data(1)<pq(cc). You can add those tests in if you wish.
Here's my code:
qp = [ceil(x_data(1)+0.1):floor(x_data(end)-0.1)];
y_interp = qp*nan; % this will hold our solution
kk=1; % indexes through the data
for cc=1:numel(qp)
% advance kk to where we can interpolate
% (this loop is guaranteed to not index out of bounds because x_data(end)>qp(end),
% but needs to be adjusted if this is not ensured prior to the loop)
while x_data(kk+1) < qp(cc)
kk = kk + 1;
end
% perform online interpolation
y_interp(cc) = myInterp(x_data(kk), x_data(kk+1), y_data(kk), y_data(kk+1), qp(cc));
end
As you can see, the logic is a lot simpler this way. The result is identical to y_interp_correct. The inner while x_data... loop serves the same purpose as your outer while loop, and would be the place where you read your data from wherever it's coming from.

What is the correct constant to use when comparing with the Minimal Single Number in Delphi?

In a loop like this:
cur := -999999; // represent a minimal possible value hold by a Single type
while ... do
begin
if some_value > cur then
cur := some_value;
end;
There is MaxSingle/NegInfinitydefined in System.Math
MaxSingle = 340282346638528859811704183484516925440.0;
NegInfinity = -1.0 / 0.0;
So should I use -MaxSingle or NegInfinity in this case?
I assume you are trying to find the largest value in a list.
If your values are in an array, just use the library function MaxValue(). (If you look at the implementation of MaxValue, you'll see that it takes the first value in the array as the starting point.)
If you must implement it yourself, use -MaxSingle as the starting value, which is approximately -3.40e38. This is the most negative value that can be represented in a Single.
Special values like Infinity and NaN have special rules in comparisons, so I would avoid these unless you are sure about what those rules are. (See also How do arbitrary floating point values compare to infinity?. In fact, it seems NegInfinity would work OK.)
It might help to understand the range of values that can be represented by a Single. In order, most negative to most positive, they are:
NegInfinity
-MaxSingle .. -MinSingle
0
MinSingle .. MaxSingle
Infinity

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