Hello,
I encountered the example
is((y1-y2)^2+(x1-x2)^2 = (y2-y1)^2+(x2-x1)^2);
false
Is this to be expected? I understand that standard simplification
only performs very simple operations, but that it doesn't recognise
that simple equation?
I know that applying "expand" and/or "radcan" often helps,
and so it does here:
is(expand((y1-y2)^2+(x1-x2)^2 = (y2-y1)^2+(x2-x1)^2));
true
Now two remarks:
1) The above comes from working with the Euclidian norm. As far as I know,
there is no built-in function for this norm, or the more general p-norms.
And as far as I know, having such functions provided by Maxima itself could
enhance the possibilities for handling equations correctly.
2) Before Maxima I used MuPad, which was open at the beginning; when
they went commercial I stopped using it. This was (is) likely not a
very powerful computer-algebra system, but nevertheless several times
I had nice surprises by using its "simplify"-function: it came up with
interesting simplifications, which I could actually use for papers.
It is really a pity that Maxima doesn't have such a function:
In it would be collected heuristical knowledge, analysing the expression,
and applying the given simplification-functions in all kinds of different
ways.
Thanks for your attention.
Oliver