Not sure. I suppose instead of -@^.@(+/&.:*:)
we could write: ^.@%@(+/&.:*:) or even: ^.@(+/&.:(*: :. (^&_0.5) ) ) But I'm not sure what this buys us. -----Original Message----- From: programming-boun...@forums.jsoftware.com [mailto:programming-boun...@forums.jsoftware.com] On Behalf Of km Sent: Monday, December 16, 2013 7:49 PM To: programm...@jsoftware.com Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] A complex question? Dan, I haven't been following this thread, but know that minus the logarithm of a positive number is the logarithm of the reciprocal. Is that relevant? ^. 1r4 1r2 1 2 4 _1.38629 _0.693147 0 0.693147 1.38629 --Kip Sent from my iPad > On Dec 16, 2013, at 3:42 PM, Dan Bron <j...@bron.us> wrote: > > Raul wrote: >> Is there a better way of doing this? >> {: +. r.inv j./1 1 > > Marshall responded: >> You can also use (+/&.:*:) in place of |@j./ , leaving you with >> -@^.@(+/&.:*:)"1 > > Raul wrote: >> Experimenting: the - is necessary and the ^. is not necessary. >> (I do not get a hexagon without the minus, I do get a hexagon without >> the ^.). > >> Immediately after writing this I realized the - is also unnecessary - >> changing >./ to <./ > > What I love is that through some simple trig and a few experiments, we > got from {:@+.@(r.^:_1)@(j./) to +/&.:*: . > > I suppose I find this particularly gratifying because I spent some > time trying to restate Raul's phrase in terms of simple arithmetic > operations, staying entirely in the real domain, and I eventually > reproduced Marshall's verb. Having spent so much time "simplifying", > when I got the final, irreducible result, I wondered at the need for > -@^. , and what its physical interpretation was. > > Raul's original verb could be rendered in English as "the length > component of a polar coordinate (initially specified in Cartesian > terms)". Why should that length be expressed as the negative log of a > distance? Why not, as Don put it, "the raw distance"? > > I know there are subtle and beautiful connections between the > trigonometric and exponential functions, and the e hidden in r. is one > expression of that. But I'm still not seeing the fundamental physical interpretation. > In other words, I wasn't surprised with the -@^. disappeared in Raul's > use case; I might've been more surprised if it'd persisted. > > Anyone want to help me see it? Maybe the best illustration would be a > concrete use case where the -@^. isn't superfluous - one where where > it is not only necessary, but inevitable? > > That is, a use case where -@^. has obvious physical interpretation, > when applied to the distance. Ideally one like Raul's, which > ultimately didn't involve complex numbers (i.e. a real-valued binary > [dyadic] operation on real numbers). > > -Dan > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm