Newbie: problem solving basic equations



Good day,

I'm not sure what you are talking about, both exp() and log() are 
one-to-one (bijective) functions.


So,

A = B


if and only if (assuming A,B>0)



log(A) = log(B)

and

A = B

if and only if

exp(A) = exp(B).

Of course, assuming real numbers (that's what I do here). So, I wasn't 
expecting anything *unsafe* from Maxima.

Even so, I would expect even the most stupid computer algebra system to 
simplify

A* sin^2 (x) + A * cos^2(x)

to

A

otherwise, it might as well not exist.

I did put "Newbie" in the subject line to indicate that I didn't 
necessarily know the software very well. So I'm not saying Maxima is 
useless, I'm just saying that it appears to be useless right now to me.

> You say,
> Again, it would seem like Maxima fails miserably...  and I'm not even 
> taking a very difficult case!
> 
> Why not try some function f(x)= stuff,
> where f is sin, cos, linear, quadratic, cubic, quartic.
> 
>  instead of    f(x)=g(x) where neither f nor g
> has a single-valued inverse.




-- 
Daniel Lemire, Ph.D.

http://www.ondelette.com/