Discussion:
HP Prime Trig Simplify
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d***@gmail.com
2018-11-04 21:58:04 UTC
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Is there a way to program the HP Prime to understand things like "[1-COS^2(x)/COS^2(x)]" is equal to "TAN(x)"? The HP Prime seems to struggle when it comes to trig identities.
Irl
2018-11-05 14:13:06 UTC
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Post by d***@gmail.com
Is there a way to program the HP Prime to understand things like "[1-COS^2(x)/COS^2(x)]" is equal to "TAN(x)"? The HP Prime seems to struggle when it comes to trig identities.
Your specific example is problematic. Presumably what you meant was something like
[1-COS^2(x)]/COS^2(x)
not
[1-COS^2(x)/COS^2(x)]
which, by the way is equal to TAN^2(x), not TAN(x). If instead you meant
SQRT([1-COS^2(x)]/COS^2(x))
then that is either TAN(x) or -TAN(x). I don't have a Prime but if you put in the correct formulas does it work more as you expect?
d***@gmail.com
2018-11-05 14:32:26 UTC
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Yes, what that's what I meant. But no, it still just gives back my entry of [COS^2(x)-1]/COS^2(x). Is this a problem with other HP calcs, or is the Prime the only one with a CAS or what? I know the TI nSpire CAS's do fine with trig identities.
d***@ddoherty.net
2018-11-05 19:50:42 UTC
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Post by d***@gmail.com
Yes, what that's what I meant. But no, it still just gives back my entry of [COS^2(x)-1]/COS^2(x). Is this a problem with other HP calcs, or is the Prime the only one with a CAS or what? I know the TI nSpire CAS's do fine with trig identities.
HP 50-g returns TAN^2(x) when TRIGTAN is applied to the formula.
d***@gmail.com
2018-11-06 01:54:40 UTC
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Post by d***@ddoherty.net
Post by d***@gmail.com
Yes, what that's what I meant. But no, it still just gives back my entry of [COS^2(x)-1]/COS^2(x). Is this a problem with other HP calcs, or is the Prime the only one with a CAS or what? I know the TI nSpire CAS's do fine with trig identities.
HP 50-g returns TAN^2(x) when TRIGTAN is applied to the formula.
So it does at least have that functionality. That's a good step in the right direction I suppose. Would there be (any) way for me to get the calculator to do something like that automatically? That's obviously the simplest answer. I don't think I should have to run the answer through another function. Plus, if I'm doing a rather complex CAS computation with trig, I don't want to have to reverse engineer what the calculator did just so I can simplify using trig identities. Is there a way to rewrite/expand how the calculator handles simplifying trig expressions to accomplish this?
Bruce Horrocks
2018-11-07 18:45:48 UTC
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Post by d***@gmail.com
Yes, what that's what I meant. But no, it still just gives back my entry of [COS^2(x)-1]/COS^2(x). Is this a problem with other HP calcs, or is the Prime the only one with a CAS or what? I know the TI nSpire CAS's do fine with trig identities.
Using the PC emulator, freshly reset, in CAS mode, I get:

(cos(x)^2-1)/cos(x)^2 => (cos(x)^2-1)/cos(x)^2
trigtan(ans) => -tan(x)^2
--
Bruce Horrocks
Surrey
England
(bruce at scorecrow dot com)
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