#7660: arithmetic with equations and inequalities confusing
-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------
       Reporter:  burcin             |        Owner:  burcin
           Type:  defect             |       Status:  needs_work
       Priority:  major              |    Milestone:  sage-6.4
      Component:  symbolics          |   Resolution:
       Keywords:  inequality,        |    Merged in:
  solver, maxima                     |    Reviewers:
        Authors:  Burcin Erocal,     |  Work issues:
  Ralf Stephan                       |       Commit:
Report Upstream:  N/A                |  30cc86077172f9e57c6b5df06b40158e17e2320d
         Branch:  u/rws/ticket/7660  |     Stopgaps:
   Dependencies:                     |
-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------

Old description:

> From the following sage-devel thread:
>

> http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel/t/951d510c814f894f
>

>
> Arithmetic with inequalities can be confusing, since Sage does nothing to
> keep the inequality ``correct``. For example:
>

> {{{
> On Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:37:10 -0800 (PST)
>         "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>         > sage: f = x + 3 < y - 2
>         > sage: f*(-1)
>         > -x - 3 < -y + 2
>         }}}
>
>         It seems MMA doesn't apply any automatic simplification in this
> case:
>
>         {{{
>         On Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:54:36 -0800
>         William Stein <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>         > Mathematica does something weird and formal:
>         >
>         > In[1]:= f := x+3 < y-2;
>         > In[3]:= f*(-1)
>         > Out[3]= -(3 + x < -2 + y)
>         }}}
>
>         Maple acts more intuitively, though the way ``formal products``
> are printed leaves something to be desired, IMHO:
>
>         {{{
>         On Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:15:53 -0800
>         William Stein <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>         > Here is what Maple does:
>         >
>         > flat:release_notes wstein$ maple
>         >     |\^/|     Maple 13 (APPLE UNIVERSAL OSX)
>         > ._|\|   |/|_. Copyright (c) Maplesoft, a division of Waterloo
> Maple
>         > Inc. 2009 \  MAPLE  /  All rights reserved. Maple is a
> trademark of
>         >  <____ ____>  Waterloo Maple Inc.
>         >       |       Type ? for help.
>         > > f := x < y;
>         >                                   f := x < y
>         >
>         > > f*(-3);
>         >                                   -3 y < -3 x
>         >
>         > > f*z;
>         >                                   *(x < y, z)
>         >
>         > > f*a;
>         >                                   *(x < y, a)
>         }}}
>

>         We should multiply both sides of the inequality only if the
> argument is a real number (as opposed to a symbol with real domain), and
> invert the relation when the argument is negative.
>
>         Note that GiNaC leaves everything formal, like MMA, by default:
>
>         {{{
>         ginsh - GiNaC Interactive Shell (ginac V1.5.3)
>           __,  _______  Copyright (C) 1999-2009 Johannes Gutenberg
> University Mainz,
>          (__) *       | Germany.  This is free software with ABSOLUTELY
> NO WARRANTY.
>           ._) i N a C | You are welcome to redistribute it under certain
> conditions.
>         <-------------' For details type `warranty;'.
>
>         Type ?? for a list of help topics.
>         > f= x < y;
>         x<y
>         > f*-1;
>         -(x<y)
>         > f*-5;
>         -5*(x<y)
>         > f*-z;
>         -z*(x<y)
>         > f*z;
>         z*(x<y)
>         }}}

New description:

 Equations and relations should behave like this:
 equations:
  * `(a==b) +-*/ c` same as:
    - `(a==b).add_to_both_sides(c)`
    - `(a==b).subtract_from_both_sides(c)`
    - `(a==b).multiply_both_sides(c)`
    - `(a==b).divide_both_sides(c)`
    - `False` if `*/0`
  * `(a==b)^c` --> `a^c == b^c`
  * `f(a==b)` --> `f(a==b)`
 relations:
  * `(a<b) +- c` same as:
    - `(a<b).add_to_both_sides(c)`
    - `(a<b).subtract_from_both_sides(c)`
  * `(a<b) */ c` same as:
    - `a*/c > b*/c` for `c` real and negative, or if `c` is assumed
 negative
    - `a*/c < b*/c` for `c` real and positive, or if `c` is assumed
 positive
    - `False` if `c=0`
  * `(a<b)^c` --> `(a<b)^c`
  * `f(a<b)`  --> `f(a<b)`

 Original description:

 From the following sage-devel thread:


 http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel/t/951d510c814f894f



 Arithmetic with inequalities can be confusing, since Sage does nothing to
 keep the inequality ``correct``. For example:


 {{{
 On Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:37:10 -0800 (PST)
         "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote:

         > sage: f = x + 3 < y - 2
         > sage: f*(-1)
         > -x - 3 < -y + 2
         }}}

         It seems MMA doesn't apply any automatic simplification in this
 case:

         {{{
         On Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:54:36 -0800
         William Stein <[email protected]> wrote:

         > Mathematica does something weird and formal:
         >
         > In[1]:= f := x+3 < y-2;
         > In[3]:= f*(-1)
         > Out[3]= -(3 + x < -2 + y)
         }}}

         Maple acts more intuitively, though the way ``formal products``
 are printed leaves something to be desired, IMHO:

         {{{
         On Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:15:53 -0800
         William Stein <[email protected]> wrote:

         > Here is what Maple does:
         >
         > flat:release_notes wstein$ maple
         >     |\^/|     Maple 13 (APPLE UNIVERSAL OSX)
         > ._|\|   |/|_. Copyright (c) Maplesoft, a division of Waterloo
 Maple
         > Inc. 2009 \  MAPLE  /  All rights reserved. Maple is a trademark
 of
         >  <____ ____>  Waterloo Maple Inc.
         >       |       Type ? for help.
         > > f := x < y;
         >                                   f := x < y
         >
         > > f*(-3);
         >                                   -3 y < -3 x
         >
         > > f*z;
         >                                   *(x < y, z)
         >
         > > f*a;
         >                                   *(x < y, a)
         }}}


         We should multiply both sides of the inequality only if the
 argument is a real number (as opposed to a symbol with real domain), and
 invert the relation when the argument is negative.

         Note that GiNaC leaves everything formal, like MMA, by default:

         {{{
         ginsh - GiNaC Interactive Shell (ginac V1.5.3)
           __,  _______  Copyright (C) 1999-2009 Johannes Gutenberg
 University Mainz,
          (__) *       | Germany.  This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO
 WARRANTY.
           ._) i N a C | You are welcome to redistribute it under certain
 conditions.
         <-------------' For details type `warranty;'.

         Type ?? for a list of help topics.
         > f= x < y;
         x<y
         > f*-1;
         -(x<y)
         > f*-5;
         -5*(x<y)
         > f*-z;
         -z*(x<y)
         > f*z;
         z*(x<y)
         }}}

--

Comment (by rws):

 Let's start this fresh. To summarize, what's wanted is the following:

 equations:
  * `(a==b) +-*/ c` same as:
    - `(a==b).add_to_both_sides(c)`
    - `(a==b).subtract_from_both_sides(c)`
    - `(a==b).multiply_both_sides(c)`
    - `(a==b).divide_both_sides(c)`
    - `False` if `*/0`
  * `(a==b)^c` --> `a^c == b^c`
  * `f(a==b)` --> `f(a==b)`
 relations:
  * `(a<b) +- c` same as:
    - `(a<b).add_to_both_sides(c)`
    - `(a<b).subtract_from_both_sides(c)`
  * `(a<b) */ c` same as:
    - `a*/c > b*/c` for `c` real and negative, or if `c` is assumed
 negative
    - `a*/c < b*/c` for `c` real and positive, or if `c` is assumed
 positive
    - `False` if `c=0`
  * `(a<b)^c` --> `(a<b)^c`
  * `f(a<b)`  --> `f(a<b)`

 Question: Real or: if coerced to the reals successfully?
 A followup extension would be like Maxima's ineq package, i.e., ask before
 doing a sign switch.

--
Ticket URL: <http://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/7660#comment:31>
Sage <http://www.sagemath.org>
Sage: Creating a Viable Open Source Alternative to Magma, Maple, Mathematica, 
and MATLAB

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