How can I prevent Mathcad from adding $\textrm{csgn}$ to my simplification?
Sample:
(x-1)/((x-1)^2)1/2 simplify -> csgn(x-1)
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Mathcad is not wrong. Plug in $x=-2$ and see what you get.
To expand upon this. The top can be either positive or negative (large negative $x$ means the top is negative and a large positive $x$ means the top is positive). However, the function $\sqrt{x}$, by convention, is always positive. Which is why, if we want both the positive or the negative root, we use $\pm\sqrt{x}$. Therefore our answer can be either positive or negative and not just 1.
BeaumontTaz
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Of course, dumb question. But do you know how can I make Mathcad assume that x>1? I'm unable to obtain a result using find(x) of a equation because of the csgn. – Pedro77 Sep 10 '14 at 19:55
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@Pedro77 I do not know MathCAD. I'm sorry. – BeaumontTaz Sep 10 '14 at 20:41
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1@Pedro77 after doing some research (not having tested it in MathCAD because I don't have it) it looks like you can just put $x>1$ in the given section of the solve block and it will take it into account. – BeaumontTaz Sep 10 '14 at 21:24