[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

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

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg5013] Re: Simplification of (a^2)*Sqrt[a^(-2)]
• From: Michael Hucka <hucka at eecs.umich.edu>
• Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 02:25:56 -0400
• Organization: University of Michigan EECS, Ann Arbor, Mich., USA
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

>>>>> On 14 Oct 1996, Michael Hucka <hucka at eecs.umich.edu> wrote:

  hucka> I've recently begun using Mathematica and have been encountering a
  hucka> curiousity that I hope someone can explain.  The problem is that
  hucka> Mathematica sometimes leaves expressions with terms such as

  hucka> -2 2 -2 2 Out[15]= Sqrt[a ] a Sqrt[b ] b ......

  hucka> in them.  I guess this happens because the system doesn't know
  hucka> whether a > 0.  For cases where I know a > 0, b > 0, what is the
  hucka> proper way of getting Mathematica to simplify these expressions down
  hucka> to (for this example) a b ?

  hucka> Thanks for any tips.

Thanks to all who replied to my question.  The PowerExpand function is what I
was looking for.

-- 
Mike Hucka        hucka at umich.edu        http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/hucka
 Ph.D. candidate, computational models of human visual processing, U-M AI Lab
UNIX administrator & programmer/analyst, Dept. of EECS, University of Michigan