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Factor out roots

sage: var('a, b, c, d')
sage: trm = 3*(a+b*sqrt(2))+(1+2*sqrt(2))*(c + d*sqrt(2))
sage: trm.expand()
3*sqrt(2)*b + 2*sqrt(2)*c + sqrt(2)*d + 3*a + c + 4*d


What could I do if I wanted a result like:

(3*b + 2*c + *d)*sqrt(2) + 3*a + c + 4*d


And similar, if there were other roots like sqrt(5), 7^(1/3) etc.

Thank you!

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3 answers

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The function coefficients may help you, though it is not exactly what you requested for at least three reasons:

sage: e = trm.expand()
sage: e.coefficients(sqrt(2))
[[2*sqrt(2)*c + 3*a + c + 4*d, 0], [3*b + d, 1]]


The three problems:

1. It is not written in the same way as you want, but you can obtain a closer expression like this:

sage: sum([cc[0] * sqrt(2)^cc[1] for cc in c])
sqrt(2)*(3*b + d) + 2*sqrt(2)*c + 3*a + c + 4*d

2. The second, more disturbing problem, is that coefficients seem not to produce what we would like in this case. In particular, we would like to have

sage: e.coefficients(sqrt(2))
[[3*a + c + 4*d, 0], [2*c + 3*b + d, 1]]


I do not now why this is not the case. It may be a bug.

3. Finally, this works for only one square root as such. Maybe some modification can yield the result with several square roots.

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You can "collect" terms for a symbolic variable, so if you temporarily replace sqrt(2) with a symbol, you're good to go:

sage: var('R')
R
sage: trm.expand().subs(sqrt(2)==R).collect(R).subs(R=sqrt(2))
sqrt(2)*(3*b + 2*c + d) + 3*a + c + 4*d

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The closest you can get is with Maxima's ratsimp:

sage: ex = trm.expand()
sage: m = ex._maxima_()
sage: m.ratsimp(sqrt(2)).sage()
sqrt(2)*(3*b + d) + 2*sqrt(2)*c + 3*a + c + 4*d

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Asked: 2015-05-06 08:43:40 -0600

Seen: 621 times

Last updated: Aug 02 '15