Witten, Ian H.Phan, Thong H.2008-02-272008-02-271993-09-01http://hdl.handle.net/1880/46199Function discovery is the problem of finding a symbolic formula for an unknown function from examples of the function's value on certain arguments. This paper describes the design, implementation and operation of a function discovery system that differs from previous ones in two principal ways. First, it is interactive: it proceeds from a partial set of examples and requests additional ones where needed. Second, it expresses the solution implicitly, as a small system of simultaneous equations, some of which may be differential equations. Solving these symbolically would (if it were possible) give a formula for the unknown function. The system can discover a wide range of functions, including all rational functions and those that can be transformed to rational functions by differentiation and logarithm operations.EngComputer Scienceunknown1993-523-28http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/31166