# If I don't want Pi to be calculated, what should I do?

Dt[0.04Cos[10Pi x]Cos[50Pi t]]


As the titile described, I don't want the Pi to be calculated. I just want it to exist in the form "Pi".

• You could use \[DoubledPi] temporarily instead of \[Pi], and make replacements afterwards if you need to e.g. plot them. – J. M.'s discontentment Sep 23 at 1:15
• Try having nothing with a decimal point. Turn 0.04 into 4/100 and see if that is enough to leave Pi unchanged. Usually any decimal point will then turn all exact quantities into approximate quantities with their own decimal points. – Bill Sep 23 at 1:35
• Dt[0.04 Cos[10 Pi x] Cos[50 Pi t] // Rationalize] // Simplify – Bob Hanlon Sep 23 at 2:20

To make Pi inert, you can wrap it with Hold[] or HoldForm[].

Dt[0.04 Cos[10 HoldForm[Pi] x] Cos[50 HoldForm[Pi] t]]

Some details :

Hold[exp] prevents exp to be evaluated whatever exp is.

HoldForm is equivalent to Hold except that it is not visible in OutputForm.

If you do not want to change every Pi manually, you can do :

 With[{Pi = HoldForm[Pi]},
Dt[0.04 Cos[10 Pi x] Cos[50 Pi t]]
]


You can retrieve the numerical value of an expression containing some HoldForm[Pi] with ReleaseHold wrapped around the whole expression.