On 10/17/2010 02:17 PM, Rupert Swarbrick wrote:
> Robert Dodier<robert.dodier at gmail.com> writes:
> (snip)
>> By default, Maxima doesn't assume sum is linear.
>> Try declare(sum, linear).
>
> Just out of interest, why isn't sum assumed to be linear? ...
> So, as I said, I'm sure there's a good reason and I'm being an idiot,
> but could someone explain?
Yes, especially because this might explain why some series solutions of
equations that I've tried have failed. Does integrate know that sum is
linear? If I remember correctly, I've asked it to integrate certain
things before and it fails even though it knows how to integrate each
term in the sum. That was a fairly obnoxious situation that I spent some
time trying to figure out but now suspect is simply due to sum not being
declared "linear"