Thank you all,
This certainly makes things clear for me.
Best Regards,
Milind
On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 8:50 AM, Stavros Macrakis <macrakis at alum.mit.edu>wrote:
> Just as in general it's not clear what it means to simplify an
> expression, in general, it's not clear what it means to 'simplify' an
> equation. And how is it different from solving the equation?
>
> I suppose in the case of x^2=0, few people will disagree that x=0 is a
> simpler equation. But how about x^2+1=2? Is x^2-1=0 or x^2=1 or
> (x-1)*(x+1)=0 'simpler'? How about (x=1 OR x= -1)?
>
> In your case, I suppose one possible simplification is (x=0 OR c=a+b).
> You can get this using the Maxima solve:
>
> eq: x*a + x*b = x*c;
> solve(eq,[x,a,b,c]) =>
> [[x = 0, a = %r1, b = %r2, c = %r3], [x = %r4, a = %r5, b = %r6,
> c = %r6 + %r5]]
> (with an implicit OR)
>
> Another approach is to work only with expressions equated to zero:
>
> eq0: lhs(eq)-rhs(eq)$
> factor(eq0) =>
> - (c - b - a) x
>
> Is the factored equation (c - b - a) x = 0 simpler? Up to you to decide.
>
> -s
>
> On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 00:36, Milind Gupta <milind.gupta at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Hi,
> > How do I simplify a simple equation in Maxima. For example:
> > x*a + x*b = x*c
> > and I should get
> > a + b = c
> > Which function can do this?
> > Thanks,
> > Milind
> >
> >
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> >
> >
>