"Nikolaos I. Ioakimidis" <ioakimidis@otenet.gr> writes:
> I can also add that Maxima assumed in the commands realpart and
> imagpart that the quantities a and b in a+%i*b are real (not
> positive now). Example below: results a and b, respectively.
>
>
> (C9) [realpart(a+%i*b), imagpart(a+%i*b)];
> (D9) [a,b]
Dear Prof. Ioakimidis,
you are certainly aware of this, but lest the casual user be confused
about Maxima's capability of doing elementary mathematics let me add
that there are various switches and declarations for this kind of
calculations. For example
(C1) declare([a,b],complex);
(D1) DONE
(C2) [realpart(a+%i*b), imagpart(a+%i*b)];
(D2) [REALPART(a) - IMAGPART(b), REALPART(b) + IMAGPART(a)]
(C3)
> Mathematica is more formal, Maxima more human (with more
> assumptions, some of them made implicitly and not known to
> the user).
Unfortunately, it's not always straightforward to figure out the
right incantation without experimenting or looking at the sources.
Wolfgang