# ND gives expression instead of number

I have a function sol defined as a solution to an equation (computed numerically). Specifically

sol[p_, a_] := NSolve[g[p, x, a] == 0, x, Reals][[1, 1, 2]]


Trying it out

sol[.2, .51]
sol[.2, .52]
sol[.2, .53]


gives .51, .52, .53 -- on this range it behaves like identity. Now I try

ND[sol[.2, aa], aa, .51 ]


and instead of giving me 1 as I would expect, it gives me very long expression involving variable x. I am not using the variable aa anywhere else in the code. And yes, I have done Needs["NumericalCalculus"].

How is this possible? It seems obvious to me that it has to return a number! How can it return anything else?

Edit: here is the whole code (I have simplified it a little bit, so the values are different than above, but it should still give numbers, not expressions)

Needs["NumericalCalculus"]
g[  x_, a_] = D[RealAbs[1 - x]^1.2 + RealAbs[a - x]^1.2, x];
sol[a_] := NSolve[g[ x, a] == 0, x, Reals][[1, 1, 2]];
ND[sol[aa], aa, .55]

• Without knowing g, NDSolve can not evaluate. And Part [[1,1,2]] simply picks out x from the unevaluated NDSolve. Therefore, as long as x has no value you get: x Feb 13 at 13:25
• I have updated the code. Sorry, I did not include g because I did not think it is relevant. I think the code should now give a number but it gives a very long expression. Feb 13 at 13:52

After typing your code into a fresh notebook and evaluating it. I get the following results:

I suggest Quitting your Kernel and evaluating everything again. You could also try clearing some variables using Clear[sol, sol, aa, g, p, x, a]. And running your code again once you have cleared them.

• Sorry, I did not include g. I have now updated the question to include the definition of g. Feb 13 at 13:52
• @user2316602 It looks like you are passing an expression in terms of $x$ and $aa$ to ND. Try evaluating sol[aa]. And let me know if you understand? Feb 13 at 15:22
• Oh, I see where it went wrong! Thank you Feb 13 at 15:31
• By the way, how did you create the cool animation? Feb 13 at 15:49
• The animation is a screen recording converted into a GIF file :) Search "GIF screen recorder" if you are interested in doing this your self. I'm on Ubuntu, so I'm using this one Feb 13 at 16:03

The problem was that ND expects an expression. When I gave it sol[aa], it looked at

NSolve[-((1.2 (aa - xa))/RealAbs[aa - xa]^0.8) - (1.2 (1 - xa))/  RealAbs[1 - xa]^0.8 == 0, xa, Reals]


then it took the 1,1,2'th element of this which was

-((1.2 (aa-xa))/RealAbs[aa-xa]^0.8)


which clearly cannot be numerically differentiated.

I have resolved this by making my own little function for numerical differentiation.

Here is a plot of your function:

Plot3D[g[x, y], {x, 0, 2}, {y, .5, 0.6}]


Why do you think the partial derivatives should be one?

• Yes, sorry, it's not one. But it's a number for sure! Feb 13 at 15:29
• g has 2 variables, you only specify one, therefore, what you get is a function of x Feb 13 at 15:32