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Polynomial: distribute to greatest common factor

asked 12 years ago

etuardu gravatar image

updated 12 years ago

Hello, assuming I have a polinomial like this:

sage: var('x, y')
(x, y)
sage: y = 2*x^2 + x^3 + 10*x^4

is there a way to get it simplified applying the distributive property on the greatest common factor?
In this case, the output should be this:

y = x^2 * ( 2 + x + 10*x^2 )

Thank you!

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How about `factor(y)`?

John Palmieri gravatar imageJohn Palmieri ( 12 years ago )

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answered 12 years ago

calc314 gravatar image

updated 12 years ago

Try:

y.collect_common_factors()

This gives the output you want.

You could also use factor(y,x^2) if you know upfront that you want to factor out x2.

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Thank you, `collect_common_factors()` is indeed what I was looking for. It was that easy and I apologize if I couldn't manage to find out myself but it seems this function lacks of documentation or search engine indexing.

etuardu gravatar imageetuardu ( 12 years ago )

Sometimes it can indeed be hard to find all of the functionality. In this case, I used the command completion in the notebook interface to help me find it. To do this, I typed the polynomial name with a dot afterwards: `y.` Then, I hit the `tab` button. A menu appears with the (many) operations that you can do to this object `y`.

calc314 gravatar imagecalc314 ( 12 years ago )

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Asked: 12 years ago

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Last updated: Jul 04 '12