>>>>> "Robert" == Robert Dodier <robert.dodier at gmail.com> writes:
Hi all,
thx for all your answers and sorry for the late reply---I was away.
My knowledge of Maxima is too limited to respond to all propositions, but I
will try to explain what I'm trying to achieve by commenting on the quotes
below.
Robert> 'solve' can solve variants of the problem you posed if "`" is
Robert> replaced by a function or operator. I haven't figured out why it
Robert> can't solve the original. In the interest of getting to a solution,
Robert> my advice is to solve it symbolically first, then substitute
Robert> specific values into the solution:
[...]
Robert> I don't know what you have in mind, but ezunits is supposed to be a
Robert> way to handle units symbolically. So if you have some such problems
Robert> to solve, I would be interested to hear about it. Take a look at
Robert> the examples shown by demo(ezunits), especially the one about the
Robert> speed of sound toward the end.
I'm a high school teacher and I have a hard time convincing my students to do
their problem solving with units---e.g. when they have to calculate a length
and get the dimension of a velocity, they know that they must have made a
mistake.
In this situation it's counterproductive to tell them to forget about the units
when solving problems with Maxima.
ezunits looked like a good solution, but after running a few tests I realized
that Maxima's problem solving capabilities are limited when doing calculations
with units.
Therefor solving it symbolically first and inserting the units afterwards is
exactly what the students shouldn't be doing.
Other proposed solutions for specifying numbers with units add an additional
layer of abstraction onto the problem, which is not helpful to my students
while they struggle with the physical problem and how to solve it with Maxima.
Thx for your help
Toto
--
"A Korean newspaper wrote that Aachen University is the MIT of Europe."
Burkhard Rauhut / "Anything that's the something of something isn't
really the anything of anything." Lisa Simpson