CAS not always working with trigonometric formulas ?
Subject: CAS not always working with trigonometric formulas ?
From: Richard Fateman
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2005 12:41:59 -0700
thomas x wrote:
> Hello all
> I have a simple question : "cos(%pi/4)" gives me "SQRT(2)/2" but
> tan(%pi/8) gives me "TAN(%PI/8)" instead of "SQRT(2)-1", why ?
> Best regards
> Thomas
>
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Short answer: it's not programmed to do that.
Longer answer: Do you always want to do that? Sometimes
the radical expression is much longer. e.g.
tan(%pi/16) or SQRT(2-SQRT(2))*(SQRT(2)+2)*(2-SQRT(SQRT(2)+2))/2
There is a flag %piargs which should control the conversion,
but apparently does not.
Commercial macsyma does better here.
RJF