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Re: Simplification of (a^2)*Sqrt[a^(-2)]

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg5126] Re: [mg4998] Simplification of (a^2)*Sqrt[a^(-2)]
• From: Elias Saab <mathes at math.missouri.edu>
• Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 01:32:45 -0500
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Use PowerExpand
Clear[a]
PowerExpand[ Sqrt[a^2]]

a


On Thu, 17 Oct 1996, Michael Hucka wrote:

> I've recently begun using Mathematica and have been encountering a curiousity
> that I hope someone can explain.  The problem is that Mathematica sometimes
> leaves expressions with terms such as 
> 
>                  -2   2       -2   2 
>   Out[15]= Sqrt[a  ] a  Sqrt[b  ] b  ......
> 
> in them.  I guess this happens because the system doesn't know whether a > 0.
> For cases where I know a > 0, b > 0, what is the proper way of getting
> Mathematica to simplify these expressions down to (for this example) a b ?
> 
> Thanks for any tips.
> 
> -- 
>                                                                        __  __ 
> Mike Hucka   hucka at umich.edu   http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/hucka  [  \/  ]
>   Ph.D. candidate, computational models of human visual processing     ][\/][
>     Programmer analyst & news admin at U. Michigan Dept. of EECS      [__][__]
>