On Jul 28, 10:35 am, Simon King <[email protected]> wrote: > The point is that some people (including myself) believe that > polynomials belong to algebra, whereas differentiation is calculus. A > polynomial and a polynomial function are two very different things. > So, how (and why) would one differentiate a polynomial?
Actually, differentiation of polynomials (just as a formal operation) has a lot of algebraic meaning, but it's often called "taking derivative". For example, GCD(f, f.derivative()) will tell you whether a polynomial has any repeated factors. This works: sage: R.<X>=GF(9,'t')[] sage: (X^2).derivative() -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-support URL: http://www.sagemath.org
