Subject: Expand, factor... as a way to solve, simplify?
From: Daniel Lemire
Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2001 13:43:29 -0300
In real life, assuming you don't yet know what to expect as an answer...
what are you going to do? Try expand, solve, simplify, expand, solve,
expand, simplify... at random until you get some kind of result...
Beside, in at least one of the example I gave, it doesn't work. Expand
and factor don't simplify the problem so that solve will work. So, often
, this is random work without even a good chance of succeeding.
The fact that other software does it easily mean that my expectations
are reasonable here. Of course, here it is a simple case where we can
see right away the answer.
What I'm interested in solving are problems more difficult where I
cannot tell right away what the answer is. In these cases, expand,
factor and the like are *not* going to help. I often work with functions
over matrices to matrices. In such cases, you simply cannot play with
your equations until the "just work". Other tools get it right, I need
for Maxima to get it right too.
> Hi - I wouldn't call using expand and factor a waste of time; it doesn't
> take that much effort to go through one or two more steps on the road to a
> solution. I use expand, factor, etc. all the time. Cheers, Dave H.
--
Daniel Lemire, Ph.D.
http://www.ondelette.com