On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 5:19 AM, Eno T?nisson <eno.tonisson at ut.ee> wrote:
> It seems that the command "solve" solves only the simpler equations and
> gives a particular solution, like
>
Correct -- solve can only solve very simple cases, and assumes that the
inverse of sin/cos is unique.
The %solve function in to_poly_solver is the best solution I know in Maxima.
...
%solve(sin(x)-sqrt(3)*cos(x)=**0,x);
> %union([x=2*%pi*%z6-(2*%pi)/3]**,[x=-(-4*%pi*%z8-(2*%pi)/3)/2]**)
>
> There are the general solutions but maybe always not in the best form.
>
Well, Maxima provides you with many tools to change the form of the answer.
For example, fullratsimp and expand of the above solution provide
different forms. If you have a well-defined form you want to put the
answer into, it should be fairly straightforward to do that. Please feel
free to ask for help on this list if you run into problems.
My question is about the borders - when command "solve" works and when does
> not.
>
Solve works only in the simplest cases, and never gives handles the
multivaluedness of trig inverses.
-s