Why is my symbolic trig expression is not fully simplifying?
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MathWorks Support Team
on 6 Nov 2019
Answered: MathWorks Support Team
on 6 Nov 2019
When I run the following,
syms x
y = sqrt(1-sin(x)^2)
y = simplify(y)
the "simplify" function is not working as expected, i.e. I am not getting an output of "cos(x)" or "abs(cos(x))". Instead, "y" is simply left unchanged.
Accepted Answer
MathWorks Support Team
on 7 Nov 2019
By default, "simplify" only performs one simplification step, and that is why some expressions, like the one in the question, are not fully reduced. However, you can get a better answer by forcing "simplify" to perform more steps:
In your example, I began getting the right answer after raising "Steps" to 15:
syms x
y = sqrt(1-sin(x)^2)
y = simplify(y,'Steps',15);
Now the output of "simplify" is "abs(cos(x))" as expected.
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