What version of Maxima are you using? This works correctly in 5.20.1:
(%i1) f1:(x/x0)^a;
(%o1) (x/x0)^a
(%i2) f2:(x/x0)^(a-1);
(%o2) (x/x0)^(a-1)
(%i3) f3:f1/f2;
(%o3) x/x0
For more complicated simplifications which Maxima does not perform
automatically, there is a large number of functions to try for reorganizing
expressions. Some that are worth trying are ratsimp, factor, factorsum,
expand, multthru. To get more information on these, type, e.g.
(%i4) ? ratsimp
-- Function: ratsimp (<expr>)
-- Function: ratsimp (<expr>, <x_1>, ..., <x_n>)
Simplifies the expression <expr> and all of its subexpressions,
including the arguments to non-rational functions. The result is
...
On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 03:58, Eli Brosh <ebrosh1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> I hope people on the maxima mailing list can help me with the following.
>
> I defined the functions f1 and f2 as:
> (%i53) f1:(x/x0)^a;
> (%o53) (x/x0)^a
> (%i48) f2:(x/x0)^(a-1);
> (%o48) (x/x0)^(a-1)
>
> Now, f3 is the division:
> (%i52) f3:f1/f2;
> (%o52) x^a*(x/x0)^(1-a)
>
> How can I force maxima to simplify f3 down to (x/x0) ?
> Now this is a simple example. What can I do with more complex expressions
> where I do not have a good idea about the end result?
>
> Thanks,
> Eli
>
>
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