Re: Complete Factorization?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg7168] Re: Complete Factorization?
- From: dreece at atl.mindspring.com (Daryl Reece)
- Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 01:58:07 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: MindSpring Enterprises, Inc.
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
When I fed MMA: Factor[2 x y-4 y^2] It returned: 2 (x - 2 y) y Make sure you write the product x*y as x y not xy. Hope this helps, Daryl skipper at worldnet.att.net (Thomas Skipper) wrote: >Does anyone know why MMA would not be able to completely factor this: >2xy-4y^2? >MMA will only factor out the 2, not the reamaining y, and consistently >leaves only 2(xy-2y^2) Is there a reason why it won't completely >factor this to 2y(x-2y)? The MMA book says that "Factor" performs a >"complete" factorization, but obviously that is not the case. >Iguess the main question is, will MMA completely factor a polynomial >or not, and if so, what is the command that WILL perform a complete >factorization?