Re: Re: Simplification and Arg[]
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg66615] Re: [mg66603] Re: [mg66593] Simplification and Arg[]
- From: "David Park" <djmp at earthlink.net>
- Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 03:01:53 -0400 (EDT)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Andrzej, Well, it was a rhetorical question. Technically ComplexExpand may be the correct term. Yet, I think that in most cases where it is used, users expect a simplification. Also it is a real problem for new users that they so frequently overlook ComplexExpand. It is a source of many postings to MathGroup. They don't overlook Simplify and FullSimplify! I'll bet if it was called ComplexSimplify it wouldn't be overlooked. Of course, it's too late now anyway. David Park djmp at earthlink.net http://home.earthlink.net/~djmp/ From: Andrzej Kozlowski [mailto:akoz at mimuw.edu.pl] To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net On 23 May 2006, at 07:14, David Park wrote: > Andrew, > > For doing complex algebra the BIG, BIG command is ComplexExpand. > One can > hardly get along without it. But for some reason, users starting > out with > complex algebra on Mathematica frequently overlook it. (Maybe they > should > have called it ComplexSimplify?) I don't think so: it quite properly called ComplexExpand because it "expands". In fact, for purely real expressions it will usually return the same output as Expand: ComplexExpand[(a + b)*(c + d)] a*c + b*c + a*d + b*d On the other hand if a and b are complex, the expression returned by ComplexExpand will certainly in general not be simpler than the original one: ComplexExpand[(a + b)*(c + d), {a, b, c, d}] (-Im[a])*Im[c] - Im[b]*Im[c] - Im[a]*Im[d] - Im[b]*Im[d] + Re[a]*Re [c] + Re[b]*Re[c] + Re[a]*Re[d] + Re[b]*Re[d] + I*(Im[c]*Re[a] + Im[d]*Re[a] + Im[c]*Re[b] + Im[d]*Re[b] + Im[a]*Re [c] + Im[b]*Re[c] + Im[a]*Re[d] + Im[b]*Re[d]) I do not think I would call this "simplifying", would you? ;-) Andrzej Kozlowski Tokyo, Japan