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Re: TraditionForm Appears to be Inconsistent

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg99574] Re: TraditionForm Appears to be Inconsistent
• From: Szabolcs <szhorvat at gmail.com>
• Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 00:16:31 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <gtudpr$j63$1@smc.vnet.net>

On May 7, 1:39 pm, uk.org.micros... at googlemail.com wrote:
> Hi
>
> The Mathematica 7 documentation says that
>
> TraditionalForm[Exp[I \[Theta]] == Cos[\[Theta]] + I Sin[\[Theta]]]
>
> will display the expression in traditional form, and indeed it does.
> However, the following evaluates the expression and then displays True
> in traditional form:
>
> TraditionalForm[Cos[x] == Sin[x + \[Pi]/2]]
>
> Why is TraditionalForm behaving differently in these two apparently
> identical situations, and how can I get Mathematica to display this
> trigonometric identity in traditional form?
>

This has nothing to do with TraditionalForm.  Mathematica simply
performs some (very simple) transformations automatically.  For
example, if one types x - x, it gets evaluated to 0, if one types x ==
x, it gets evaluated to True.  Similarly, Cos[x] == Sin[x + \[Pi]/2]
is evaluated to True.

If you need to format this expression, try HoldForm:

HoldForm[Cos[x] == Sin[x + \[Pi]/2]] // TraditionalForm