How do you get maxima to "simplify" expressions like cos(2*%pi/5)?

The Trigonometric section in the Maxima manual does say that "Two SHARE
packages extend the simplification rules built into Maxima, NTRIG and
ATRIG1."

That said, I don't think there's anyone out there who thinks that the
documentation cannot use improvements :-)


Viktor





-----Original Message-----
From: maxima-admin@math.utexas.edu [mailto:maxima-admin at math] On
Behalf Of Calvin Ostrum
Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2004 11:52 AM
To: maxima@math.utexas.edu
Subject: Re: [Maxima] How do you get maxima to "simplify" expressions like
cos(2*%pi/5)?

Viktor T. Toth wrote:

> Try load(ntrig). Note that unless you're using the latest CVS, it may not
> always give you the correct result outside the first quadrant, due to a
sign
> error.

Thanks, that is an interesting coincidence that you had been recently
fixing this little piece of code only a short time before I posted about
this problem.

I didn't know it was something that had received such a specific
treatment.  I wonder if there was some way I should have thought
to come across this without having to ask.



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