diff --git a/gtsam/base/Matrix.cpp b/gtsam/base/Matrix.cpp
index 213b6bdf1..1e5da7d86 100644
--- a/gtsam/base/Matrix.cpp
+++ b/gtsam/base/Matrix.cpp
@@ -339,7 +339,7 @@ weighted_eliminate(Matrix& A, Vector& b, const Vector& sigmas) {
   list<boost::tuple<Vector, double, double> > results;
 
   Vector pseudo(m); // allocate storage for pseudo-inverse
-  Vector weights = reciprocal(sigmas.array().square()); // calculate weights once
+  Vector weights = sigmas.array().square().inverse(); // calculate weights once
 
   // We loop over all columns, because the columns that can be eliminated
   // are not necessarily contiguous. For each one, estimate the corresponding
diff --git a/gtsam/base/Vector.cpp b/gtsam/base/Vector.cpp
index 205f48839..ce3f0a7b0 100644
--- a/gtsam/base/Vector.cpp
+++ b/gtsam/base/Vector.cpp
@@ -214,11 +214,6 @@ double norm_2(const Vector& v) {
   return v.norm();
 }
 
-/* ************************************************************************* */
-Vector reciprocal(const Vector &a) {
-  return a.array().inverse();
-}
-
 /* ************************************************************************* */
 Vector esqrt(const Vector& v) {
   return v.cwiseSqrt();
diff --git a/gtsam/base/Vector.h b/gtsam/base/Vector.h
index 8b61e32f0..5bb732f5c 100644
--- a/gtsam/base/Vector.h
+++ b/gtsam/base/Vector.h
@@ -243,13 +243,6 @@ GTSAM_EXPORT double sum(const Vector &a);
  */
 GTSAM_EXPORT double norm_2(const Vector& v);
 
-/**
- * Elementwise reciprocal of vector elements
- * @param a vector
- * @return [1/a(i)]
- */
-GTSAM_EXPORT Vector reciprocal(const Vector &a);
-
 /**
  * Elementwise sqrt of vector elements
  * @param v is a vector
@@ -349,8 +342,10 @@ GTSAM_EXPORT Vector concatVectors(size_t nrVectors, ...);
 
 #ifdef GTSAM_ALLOW_DEPRECATED_SINCE_V4
 GTSAM_EXPORT inline Vector emul(const Vector &a, const Vector &b) {assert (b.size()==a.size()); return a.cwiseProduct(b);}
+GTSAM_EXPORT inline Vector reciprocal(const Vector &a) {return a.array().inverse();}
 #endif
 
+
 } // namespace gtsam
 
 #include <boost/serialization/nvp.hpp>
diff --git a/gtsam/base/tests/testVector.cpp b/gtsam/base/tests/testVector.cpp
index 6ea1627a5..a2620ef0c 100644
--- a/gtsam/base/tests/testVector.cpp
+++ b/gtsam/base/tests/testVector.cpp
@@ -198,7 +198,7 @@ TEST(Vector, weightedPseudoinverse )
   // create sigmas
   Vector sigmas(2);
   sigmas(0) = 0.1; sigmas(1) = 0.2;
-  Vector weights = reciprocal(sigmas.array().square());
+  Vector weights = sigmas.array().square().inverse();
 
   // perform solve
   Vector actual; double precision;
@@ -224,7 +224,7 @@ TEST(Vector, weightedPseudoinverse_constraint )
   // create sigmas
   Vector sigmas(2);
   sigmas(0) = 0.0; sigmas(1) = 0.2;
-  Vector weights = reciprocal(sigmas.array().square());
+  Vector weights = sigmas.array().square().inverse();
   // perform solve
   Vector actual; double precision;
   boost::tie(actual, precision) = weightedPseudoinverse(x, weights);
@@ -243,7 +243,7 @@ TEST(Vector, weightedPseudoinverse_nan )
 {
   Vector a = (Vector(4) << 1., 0., 0., 0.).finished();
   Vector sigmas = (Vector(4) << 0.1, 0.1, 0., 0.).finished();
-  Vector weights = reciprocal(sigmas.array().square());
+  Vector weights = sigmas.array().square().inverse();
   Vector pseudo; double precision;
   boost::tie(pseudo, precision) = weightedPseudoinverse(a, weights);
 
@@ -306,7 +306,7 @@ TEST(Vector, greater_than )
 TEST(Vector, reciprocal )
 {
   Vector v = Vector3(1.0, 2.0, 4.0);
-  EXPECT(assert_equal(Vector3(1.0, 0.5, 0.25),reciprocal(v)));
+  EXPECT(assert_equal(Vector3(1.0, 0.5, 0.25), (Vector) v.array().inverse()));
 }
 
 /* ************************************************************************* */
diff --git a/gtsam/linear/NoiseModel.h b/gtsam/linear/NoiseModel.h
index c76db1b55..2f229cb22 100644
--- a/gtsam/linear/NoiseModel.h
+++ b/gtsam/linear/NoiseModel.h
@@ -309,7 +309,7 @@ namespace gtsam {
        * i.e. the diagonal of the information matrix, i.e., weights
        */
       static shared_ptr Precisions(const Vector& precisions, bool smart = true) {
-        return Variances(reciprocal(precisions), smart);
+        return Variances(precisions.array().inverse(), smart);
       }
 
       virtual void print(const std::string& name) const;
@@ -443,10 +443,10 @@ namespace gtsam {
        * precisions, some of which might be inf
        */
       static shared_ptr MixedPrecisions(const Vector& mu, const Vector& precisions) {
-        return MixedVariances(mu, reciprocal(precisions));
+        return MixedVariances(mu, precisions.array().inverse());
       }
       static shared_ptr MixedPrecisions(const Vector& precisions) {
-        return MixedVariances(reciprocal(precisions));
+        return MixedVariances(precisions.array().inverse());
       }
 
       /**