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Re: fractional simplification



Pierre MARTINEU wrote:
> 
> We didn't manage to simplify the symbolic expression : "a . b/a" under
> Mathematica 2.2.
> We've tried using different functions like 'simplify' ...without success
> !
> Is it normal ?
> Do you have any solutions to solve this problem ?

Pierre:

Could you explain what you want the answer to be please?

a.b/a is interpreted as Dot[a, b]/a, where Dot is the vector inner
product, not Times[a,b]/a.

For explicit vectors we get 


{a1,a2}.{b1,b2}/{a1,a2}

 a1 b1 + a2 b2  a1 b1 + a2 b2
{-------------, -------------}
      a1             a2


You may want

{a1,a2}.({b1,b2}/{a1,a2})

b1+b2

We will probably havw to write a rule.

-- 
Allan Hayes
Training and Consulting
Leicester, UK
hay@haystack.demon.co.uk
http://www.haystack.demon.co.uk
voice: +44 (0)116 271 4198
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