Re: [Maxima-discuss] float, rectform and contradicting results (real vs. complex)

[Stavros M. <mac...@gm...>]

*domain:real/complex* sounds like a really powerful global setting -- am I
working in the reals or in the complex numbers?

But in fact, it has a very narrow meaning -- it (together with *m1pbranch* and
radexpand) simply controls the simplification of *(x^a)^b* in certain cases.

It doesn't make sense for it to modify the behavior of
*rectform/polarform/....*

         -s

On Tue, Jan 30, 2024 at 5:44 AM Oscar Benjamin <osc...@gm...>
wrote:

> On Tue, 30 Jan 2024 at 11:05, David Scherfgen via Maxima-discuss
> ...
> > Looking at the expression (5-3^(3/2))^(1/3), applying float to it
> results in a real number, while applying rectform to it results in a
> complex number with a non-zero imaginary part:
> ...

By default Maxima uses domain:real so the cube root of a negative
> number is a negative number. If you set domain:complex then
> float(expr) gives a different result:
> ...
>