Subject: hgfred([a,b],[0],x) and hgfred([a,0],[0],x)
From: Raymond Toy
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 08:52:17 -0700
While playing around with hypergeometrics again, I noticed that
hgfred([a,b],[0],x) returns the noun form. Wolfram Alpha says it's complex
infinity. This seems right. Maybe we should return infinity too?
For fun, I wanted to see what maxima gives for hgfred([a,0],[0],x). Maxima
says 1/(1-x)^a. When I ask Wolfram Alpha for 2f1(a,0,;0,x), it says it's
identically 1. But it also gives a series expansion for 2f1(a,0;0;x) which
is obviously not 1. In fact, it looks like 1/(1-x)^a.
The moral? I guess we should always check our work and check our
references too. :-)
Ray