Leon,
First, I think your expression should be
sqrt(a^2 - 2*a*b + b^2) + sqrt(a^2 + 2*a*b+b^2);
What you need to do is get "inside the square roots", and to factor. The
following code does this.
factor_bits(ex):=if atom(ex) then ex else apply(op(ex),maplist(lambda([ex2],factor_bits(factor(ex2))),args(ex)));
Chris
On Thu, 10 Feb 2011, leon.magiera at wp.pl wrote:
> Hi List
>
> Given
>
> assume( a>0, b>0 )$
>
> sqrt(a^2 - 2*a*b + b^2) + sqrt(a^2 - 2*a*b+b^2);
>
> How to simplify the above expression to the form
>
> a+b+abs(a-b)
>
> Thanks in advance
> Leon
>
>
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