You all probably know this already ... today's version of maxima
has trouble with the imaginary unit.
(%i1) ratsimp(%i^2);
(%o1) %i^2
(%i2)
(%i2) build_info();
Maxima version: 5.9.0.1cvs
Maxima build date: 12:36 5/11/2004
host type: i686-pc-mingw32
lisp-implementation-type: Kyoto Common Lisp
lisp-implementation-version: GCL 2.7.0
(%o2)
Barton