When I personally use Mathematica etc, I often don't expand expressions x^20+20*x^19+......... doesn't tell me much about where an expression comes from. (x+5)^20 tells me a bunch. Expanding expressions generally causes information loss for many calculus and physics problems and going overboard can be bad (although this isn't an issue for number theory). Furthermore sqrt(2)sqrt(3) is not necessarily equal to sqrt(6), so not simplifying there is appropriate in most circumstances.
On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 11:28 AM, Soroosh Yazdani <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 3:09 AM, Gary Furnish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > <snip> >> >> Your going to have a hard time convincing me that the default behavior >> in Mathematica and Maple is wrong. This makes sense for number theory >> but not for people using calculus. > > Hmm, I must say from using maple on expressions like this, I found the > answers that it gave were completely pointless at times, and I was forced to > run expand and simplify many times, and use many tricks to get the answer in > the most simplified form. At times, the easiest way was to evaluate the > expressions, and then use LLL to get the expression back. Admittedly I am a > number theorist, although at the time when I was using maple extensively, I > was still in undergrad. When I started using MAGMA, the learning curve > seemed considerably higher, but completely worth the trouble for algebraic > expressions. The current proposal by Robert seems to be the best of both > world for my taste. (And I agree with him that a lot of it is a matter of > taste.) > > As an aside, one of my gripes teaching calculus is that the students don't > simplify expressions like sqrt(2)sqrt(3) or 1/(1+i), and I would prefer if > SAGE doesn't contribute to such atrocity. :) > > Soroosh > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
