I assign the result of a Solve to the variable eq8. Then I attempt to use this result in the definition of a function as follows: In[166]:= eq8 = Solve[eq7, {V1}] Out[166]= {{V1 -> -1.02 (461.185 - 1. im)}} In[177]:= Vstrom = eq8[[1, 1, 2]] Out[177]= -1.02 (461.185 - 1. im) current[im_] := N[Vstrom] This does not work. With copy of Out[177] and paste it into N[] I find N[-1.0200000000000002` (461.184642121376` - 1.` im)] When eliminating these `character, my function work. This is cumbersome. How can I get rid of the ` characters?