Re: Simplifying things
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg26117] Re: Simplifying things
- From: "Paul Lutus" <nospam at nosite.com>
- Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 01:56:03 -0500 (EST)
- References: <8vfs3v$jkq@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
<djago at my-deja.com> wrote in message news:8vfs3v$jkq at smc.vnet.net... > Hi! > I need to simplify looooong equations, but don't know how to get rid of > those terms like: > > Sqrt[a^2] > > when a is a real positive variable... How can I tell Mathematica 3 to > simplify this? I ran into this recently also. It turns out that versions of Mathematica before version 4.0 could not be instructed to make the necessary assumptions about such an equation (say, that x >= 0). In Mathematica 4.0, you can say -- Simplify[Sqrt[x^2],x >= 0] -- and you will get the desired result. Here is a link to a more complete explanation. Remember, some of the examples shown don't work in pre-4.0 versions: http://www.wolfram.com/products/mathematica/newin4/new_assumptions.html -- Paul Lutus www.arachnoid.com