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Section 7.4 Simplifying Expressions
Likewise, you can also simplify any expression with
simplify(). This includes basic simplifications such as collecting like terms as well as more complicated algebraic simplifications such as cancelling and simplifying radicals, exponents, logarithms, trigonometric functions, etc.
> simplify(3*sin(x)^2 + 3*cos(x)^2);
\begin{equation*}
\displaystyle 3
\end{equation*}
Aside The
simplify() command can sometimes produce unexpected results. In some cases, the
factor() command may be more appropriate. In other cases, you may need to include some optional parameters in the command.
> simplify(4*(tan(x)^2 + 1));
\begin{equation*}
\displaystyle 4\, \left( \cos \left( x \right) \right) ^{-2}
\end{equation*}
\begin{equation*}
\displaystyle \ln \left( 3 \right) +\ln \left( {x}^{3}y \right)
\end{equation*}
Sometimes additional parameters need to be supplied in order for Maple to simplify the expression as you intend. In the
simplify() command below, we add the assumption that all variables are positive so that
\(\ln(x)\) and
\(\ln(y)\) are defined.
> simplify(ln(3*x^3*y), assume=positive);
\begin{equation*}
\displaystyle \ln \left( 3 \right) +3\,\ln \left( x \right) +\ln \left( y \right)
\end{equation*}
