On 2013-10-02, Richard Fateman <fateman at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10/2/2013 12:06 AM, Robert Dodier wrote:
>> If we can't even solve a simple equation unambiguously,
> You are missing the point. We have solved the equation and offered all
> the roots.
I dunno. There are at most three distinct solutions to solve(z^3 = x, z).
There's no reason for solve to return something that could be
interpreted as representing more than three values.
(-1)^(1/6) and expressions like it are unambiguous only if it is agreed
which root is represented by that -- e.g. always the principal root,
never any other, and never the whole set of roots. For better or worse,
Maxima is, to the best of my knowledge, not consistent about that, so
until Maxima is consistent, a user can't assume an unambiguous result.
best
Robert Dodier