> Subject: Re: [Maxima] tan(%pi/2)?
> In general, mathematical functions in Maxima should not return
> non-finite thingies like INF, MINF, UND, IND, or INFINITY (complex
> infinity), because other parts of Maxima don't handle them correctly.
> I know this is being worked on, but as far as I know it is not done.
> So you will end up with things like sin(inf)-sin(inf) "simplifying" to
> 0 and so on.
>
> The consistent thing to do is to give an error as with 1/0.
This is also maple's default:
|>tan(Pi/2);
|Error, (in tan) numeric exception: division by zero
However, in maple you can also do:
|>limit(tan(x),x=(Pi/2),left);
| infinity
So infinity is only obtained when taking the limit x -> Pi/2.
Regards,
Nijso