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