Re: Simplify Oddity
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg59424] Re: Simplify Oddity
- From: Jean-Marc Gulliet <jeanmarc.gulliet at gmail.com>
- Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 03:30:52 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: The Open University, Milton Keynes, U.K.
- References: <dd7337$3q5$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
AES wrote: > I'm supposing that the following rather odd result has something to do > with Mathematica being concerned that g or r (or k?) might be complex > numbers? > > In[151] := > > f1 = g (g/r)^(k-1); > > f2 = g^k/r^(k-1); > > f1/f2 // FullSimplify > > Out[151] = g^(-k) (g/r)^k r^k > > But shouldn't Mathematic be able to simplify this to unity nonetheless? > -- maybe without even invoking Simplify? > By default, "Mathematica does not expand powers into products (Online Help)." One way of expanding powers is to use *PowerExpand*. In[1]:= f1 = g*(g/r)^(k - 1); f2 = g^k/r^(k - 1); PowerExpand[f1/f2] Out[3]= 1 Best regards, /J.M.