11.4 Functions and Variables for Predicates

Function: charfun (p) ¶

Return 0 when the predicate p evaluates to false; return 1 when the predicate evaluates to true. When the predicate evaluates to something other than true or false (unknown), return a noun form.

Examples:

(%i1) charfun (x < 1);
(%o1)                    charfun(x < 1)
(%i2) subst (x = -1, %);
(%o2)                           1
(%i3) e : charfun ('"and" (-1 < x, x < 1))$
(%i4) [subst (x = -1, e), subst (x = 0, e), subst (x = 1, e)];
(%o4)                       [0, 1, 0]

Categories: Mathematical functions ·

Function: compare (x, y) ¶

Return a comparison operator op (<, <=, >, >=, =, or #) such that is (x op y) evaluates to true; when either x or y depends on %i and x # y, return notcomparable; when there is no such operator or Maxima isn’t able to determine the operator, return unknown.

Examples:

(%i1) compare (1, 2);
(%o1)                           <
(%i2) compare (1, x);
(%o2)                        unknown
(%i3) compare (%i, %i);
(%o3)                           =
(%i4) compare (%i, %i + 1);
(%o4)                     notcomparable
(%i5) compare (1/x, 0);
(%o5)                           #
(%i6) compare (x, abs(x));
(%o6)                          <=

The function compare doesn’t try to determine whether the real domains of its arguments are nonempty; thus

(%i1) compare (acos (x^2 + 1), acos (x^2 + 1) + 1);
(%o1)                           <

The real domain of acos (x^2 + 1) is empty.

Categories: Declarations and inferences ·

Function: equal (a, b) ¶

Represents equivalence, that is, equal value.

By itself, equal does not evaluate or simplify. The function is attempts to evaluate equal to a Boolean value. is(equal(a, b)) returns true (or false) if and only if a and b are equal (or not equal) for all possible values of their variables, as determined by evaluating ratsimp(a - b); if ratsimp returns 0, the two expressions are considered equivalent. Two expressions may be equivalent even if they are not syntactically equal (i.e., identical).

When is fails to reduce equal to true or false, the result is governed by the global flag prederror. When prederror is true, is complains with an error message. Otherwise, is returns unknown.

In addition to is, some other operators evaluate equal and notequal to true or false, namely if, and, or, and not.

The negation of equal is notequal.

Examples:

By itself, equal does not evaluate or simplify.

(%i1) equal (x^2 - 1, (x + 1) * (x - 1));
                        2
(%o1)            equal(x  - 1, (x - 1) (x + 1))
(%i2) equal (x, x + 1);
(%o2)                    equal(x, x + 1)
(%i3) equal (x, y);
(%o3)                      equal(x, y)

The function is attempts to evaluate equal to a Boolean value. is(equal(a, b)) returns true when ratsimp(a - b) returns 0. Two expressions may be equivalent even if they are not syntactically equal (i.e., identical).

(%i1) ratsimp (x^2 - 1 - (x + 1) * (x - 1));
(%o1)                           0
(%i2) is (equal (x^2 - 1, (x + 1) * (x - 1)));
(%o2)                         true
(%i3) is (x^2 - 1 = (x + 1) * (x - 1));
(%o3)                         false
(%i4) ratsimp (x - (x + 1));
(%o4)                          - 1
(%i5) is (equal (x, x + 1));
(%o5)                         false
(%i6) is (x = x + 1);
(%o6)                         false
(%i7) ratsimp (x - y);
(%o7)                         x - y
(%i8) is (equal (x, y));
(%o8)                        unknown
(%i9) is (x = y);
(%o9)                         false

When is fails to reduce equal to true or false, the result is governed by the global flag prederror.

(%i1) [aa : x^2 + 2*x + 1, bb : x^2 - 2*x - 1];
                    2             2
(%o1)             [x  + 2 x + 1, x  - 2 x - 1]
(%i2) ratsimp (aa - bb);
(%o2)                        4 x + 2
(%i3) prederror : true;
(%o3)                         true
(%i4) is (equal (aa, bb));
Maxima was unable to evaluate the predicate:
       2             2
equal(x  + 2 x + 1, x  - 2 x - 1)
 -- an error.  Quitting.  To debug this try debugmode(true);
(%i5) prederror : false;
(%o5)                         false
(%i6) is (equal (aa, bb));
(%o6)                        unknown

Some operators evaluate equal and notequal to true or false.

(%i1) if equal (y, y - 1) then FOO else BAR;
(%o1)                          BAR
(%i2) eq_1 : equal (x, x + 1);
(%o2)                    equal(x, x + 1)
(%i3) eq_2 : equal (y^2 + 2*y + 1, (y + 1)^2);
                         2                   2
(%o3)             equal(y  + 2 y + 1, (y + 1) )
(%i4) [eq_1 and eq_2, eq_1 or eq_2, not eq_1];
(%o4)                  [false, true, true]

Because not expr causes evaluation of expr, not equal(a, b) is equivalent to is(notequal(a, b)).

(%i1) [notequal (2*z, 2*z - 1), not equal (2*z, 2*z - 1)];
(%o1)            [notequal(2 z, 2 z - 1), true]
(%i2) is (notequal (2*z, 2*z - 1));
(%o2)                         true

Categories: Operators ·

Function: notequal (a, b) ¶

Represents the negation of equal(a, b).

Examples:

(%i1) equal (a, b);
(%o1)                      equal(a, b)
(%i2) maybe (equal (a, b));
(%o2)                        unknown
(%i3) notequal (a, b);
(%o3)                    notequal(a, b)
(%i4) not equal (a, b);
(%o4)                    notequal(a, b)
(%i5) maybe (notequal (a, b));
(%o5)                        unknown
(%i6) assume (a > b);
(%o6)                        [a > b]
(%i7) equal (a, b);
(%o7)                      equal(a, b)
(%i8) maybe (equal (a, b));
(%o8)                         false
(%i9) notequal (a, b);
(%o9)                    notequal(a, b)
(%i10) maybe (notequal (a, b));
(%o10)                        true

Categories: Operators ·

Function: unknown (expr) ¶

Returns true if and only if expr contains an operator or function not recognized by the Maxima simplifier.

Categories: Predicate functions · Simplification functions ·

Function: zeroequiv (expr, v) ¶

Tests whether the expression expr in the variable v is equivalent to zero, returning true, false, or dontknow.

zeroequiv has these restrictions:

1. Do not use functions that Maxima does not know how to differentiate and evaluate.
2. If the expression has poles on the real line, there may be errors in the result (but this is unlikely to occur).
3. If the expression contains functions which are not solutions to first order differential equations (e.g. Bessel functions) there may be incorrect results.
4. The algorithm uses evaluation at randomly chosen points for carefully selected subexpressions. This is always a somewhat hazardous business, although the algorithm tries to minimize the potential for error.

For example zeroequiv (sin(2 * x) - 2 * sin(x) * cos(x), x) returns true and zeroequiv (%e^x + x, x) returns false. On the other hand zeroequiv (log(a * b) - log(a) - log(b), a) returns dontknow because of the presence of an extra parameter b.

Categories: Predicate functions ·