Why can't maxima solve...



Hello, Richard.

Finally I found, that

> 1. "Quotient is not exact" is always the result of a bug. It
> comes from computing the GCD G of two polynomials P, Q, and reducing
> the fraction P/Q  to  P/G  / Q/G.   But it finds that G does
> not divide P  or Q.  So it is a GCD bug. Try changing the GCDSWITCH
> to use a different GCD algorithm.


no GCDSWITCH is defined anywhere in Maxima-5.9.0/* subdirectories. Maybe 
something's missing in the distribution? The switches are only mentioned 
in one .dem file :(

> 
> 3.  Try, after substitution, to use ratsimp or radcan.
> 
it doesn't help. Maxima doesn't see that sqrt(2*sqrt(11)+12) = 
1+sqrt(11). I wish I could teach it handle nested radicals if I only 
knew the proper algorithm.

--
Andrei Zorine