Barton Willis wrote:
> My understanding of Maple is poor, but I tried a few experiments with
> Maple 10. OK:
>
> simplify((a*x^2-a) * sqrt(1-x^2)) --> -a * (1-x^2)^(3/2),
>
> OK, but...
>
> simplify(42 + (a*x^2-a) * sqrt(1-x^2)) --> 42+(1-x^2)^
> (1/2)*a*x^2-(1-x^2)^(1/2)*a
>
> For a naive Maple user (me), 42 + (a*x^2-a) * sqrt(1-x^2)) doesn't
> automatically simplify to 42 - a * (1-x^2)^(3/2).
>
> Barton
>
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>
For WIW, Mathematica 3.0 and 7.0 both do simplification
In[7]:= Simplify[42+ (a*x^2-a)*Sqrt[1-x^2]]
2 3/2
Out[7]= 42 - a (1 - x )
-sen