On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 10:53 AM, akim <akim.l at hotmail.fr> wrote:
> I noticed when I type in wxmaxima diff((x^2+1)/x, x); ... the answer is
> 2-((x^2+1)/x^2).
>
> Why doesn't it show the shortest answer 1-(1/x^2) ?
>
Maxima does not guarantee any particular form of the output. Different
forms are useful in different contexts, and by default, Maxima only performs
very simple simplification. You can get other forms using a variety of
functions:
ex: diff((x^2+1)/x,x)$
ratsimp(ex) => (x^2-1)/x^2
factor(ex) => (x-1)*(x+1)/x^2
expand(ex) => 1-1/x^2
What is this "expand" ? Can I acces to it via the grafical wxmaxima menu,
> that the answer of everything I differentiate is the shortest?
>
expand does not necessarily make things shorter. expand((1+x)^5) =>
x^5+5*x^4+10*x^3+10*x^2+5*x+1
I'm afraid I don't know about wxmaxima.
-s