Polynomials

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Polynomials

Consider the following expression: $\left(x + y\right)^{15}$ . Let us expand it first and then shrink back to its original form.

This is how we do this in Maxima:

$\begin{figure} {\footnotesize \begin{tex2html_preform}\begin{verbatim}(C39) a : ... ...or(%); 15 (D41) (Y + X) (C42)\end{verbatim}\end{tex2html_preform}} \end{figure}$

The colon, :, is the assignment operator in Maxima. In Maple the assignment operator is :=. This is how the same is done in Maple:

$\begin{figure} {\footnotesize \begin{tex2html_preform}\begin{verbatim}> a := (x ... ...> factor(%); 15 (x + y)>\end{verbatim}\end{tex2html_preform}} \end{figure}$

In Mathematica, the assignment operator is =, whereas, as you should now be able to recall, := is a delayed evaluation assignment operator. Mathematica's equivalents of expand and factor are Expand and Factor:

$\begin{figure} {\footnotesize \begin{tex2html_preform}\begin{verbatim}In[12]:= a... ... 15 Out[14]= (x + y)In[15]:=\end{verbatim}\end{tex2html_preform}} \end{figure}$

Zdzislaw Meglicki
2001-02-26