maxima-bounces at math.utexas.edu wrote on 08/12/2011 08:46:53 AM:
> solve(expr,x) returns three very messy solutions. Though these are
> correct, they are very difficult to simplify to anything more usable.
Alternatively, setting algebraic to true allows solve to automatically
give greatly
simplified solutions:
(%i1) solve(35*x^3+(35*sqrt(3)-9)*x^2-(9*sqrt(3)+2)*x-2*sqrt(3)),
algebraic : true;
(%o1) [x=-sqrt(3),x=2/5,x=-1/7]
The user option 'algebraic' is obscure. How would a new user discover it?
What would happen if 'algebraic' defaulted to true?
--Barton