Dieter Kaiser <drdieterkaiser at web.de> writes:
> Am Sonntag, den 02.10.2011, 16:47 -0700 schrieb Raymond Toy:
>> On 10/2/11 2:22 AM, Pere Castellv? wrote:
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > is there a way to obtain 40*sqrt(2) in this computation?
>> >
>> > (%i3) 20*sqrt(2)+20*sqrt(2);
>> > (%o3) 5*2^(7/2)
>> >
>> Hmm. It seems that you can't. Even 40*sqrt(2) is simplified to 5*2^(7/2).
>>
>> I think this is due to some work done a while a go to fix some other
>> issues where maxima was not simplifying expressions like this, so maxima
>> now factors the numbers and puts the factors into the square root.
>
> Yes, products with roots and integers are consistently simplified. This
> might be not the prefered representation, but it allows much better
> simplification of complex expressions.
We could modify NFORMAT to convert constant expressions like 5*2^(7/2)
into a more attractive form. If others think this is a good idea, I
could work on it.
Mark