The factor function is a little bit silly.



On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 8:21 PM, J.C. Pizarro <jcpiza at gmail.com> wrote:
>  >  (%i12) factor(expand((x-y)^1000));
>  >                                          1000
>  >  (%o12)                            (y - x)
>
>  Look it, Maxima solved it wrongly! It's bug of Maxima!
>
>  The correct answer is (x-y)^1000, not (y-x)^1000 !!!

They are equal.

(x-y)^1000 = 1 * (x-y)^1000 = (-1)^1000 * (x-y)^1000 = ((-1) *
(x-y))^1000 = (y-x)^1000

         -s