sign of expression in integration



Semyon Glazyrin wrote:
> Hello!
>
> When I try to integrate one simple expression maxima asks me about
> sign of one subexpression. But I think in this case integral limits
> answer the question:
>
> (%i2) assume(a>0,b>0);
> (%o2)                           [a > 0, b > 0]
> (%i3) integrate(sqrt(a/x-b),x,0,a/b);
> Is  b x - a  positive, negative, or zero?
>
> n;                                     %pi a
> (%o3)                              ---------
>                                    2 sqrt(b)
>
> Does maxima do such type of checks?
>   

sometimes.   if you leave out all assumptions it behaves differently, so 
it uses them for something.

if you say  assume(b*x-a<0)  then it does not ask the question, and just 
gives the answer.

Which behavior represents a bug is not entirely clear.   Since x is a 
global variable in the "assume"
and x is a (presumably different) bound variable in the integration, 
should the assumption have
any effect?  On the other hand, shouldn't the integration program figure 
more of this out itself?
RJF

> thanks,
> Semyon.
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