On 8/9/2011 7:00 PM, Ether Jones wrote:
> Why can't Maxima find an explicit solution for y?
>
> Am I missing something obvious?
maybe
>
>
> (%i1) kill(all)$
> display2d:false$
>
> (%i2) solve(y=x+h*C*sqrt((y+x)/2),y);
>
> (%o2) [y = (h*sqrt(y+x)*C+sqrt(2)*x)/sqrt(2)]
>
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solve(eq, sqrt(y+x));
part(%,1);
%^2;
solve(%,y)
check the solutions to see if they are actual solutions.
Maxima's solve does not 'square both side' and 'check'.
maybe it should, but solve tries to generate solutions that it knows are
solutions. Checking even correct
solutions is sometimes not possible, and eliminating them because
simplification is not clever enough,
is not a great idea..