What does assume(x, "real")?

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B r u n o
1603 ●5 ●21 ●43

I do not understand what permits the construction assume(x, "real"). For instance,

sage: assume(x, "real")
sage: bool(x*x>0)
False

I would expect the answer to be True.

Note that Maxima always answers True for the same inequality:

sage: forget()
sage: bool(maxima(x*x>0))
True

I am not sure this is a better behaviour though.

1 Answer

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Thorsten
198 ●6 ●11

It is a good thing, that bool(x^2>0) evaluates to false. Just plug in the real value 0.

However in version 6.4 of sage

 sage:  assume(x,'real')
 sage:  bool(x*x>=0)

evaluates to true.

Of course, sorry for the noise! Thanks!

B r u n o ( 10 years ago )

Just another comment: Actually, not assuming x to be "real" yields the same result, so we have the following:

sage: e = x*x >= 0
sage: bool(e)
True
sage: bool(e.subs(x=I))
False

Are there default assumptions for inequalities?

B r u n o ( 10 years ago )

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Asked: 10 years ago

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Last updated: Feb 22 '15