Re: Phasors, complex, polar in maxima

OK, here is a great example of why I have so much trouble with the
documentation. I want to try getting determinants of some matrices. On
my calculator, I find the det() function, and matrices are specified in
brackets, so I type: det([[10+6i,2-3i],[-5,-1+i]]), and viola, I get
the answer. So I look in the Maxima manual, to see how this is done in
Maxima. I get:

Function: DETERMINANT (M)
computes the determinant of M by a method similar to Gaussian
elimination. The form of the result depends upon the setting of the
switch RATMX. There is a special routine for dealing with sparse
determininants which can be used by setting the switches RATMX:TRUE and
SPARSE:TRUE.

OK, cool. Thus, I try:

(%i1) determinant([[10+6*%i,2-3*%i],[-5,-1+%i]]);

DETERMINANT called on a non-square matrix.
-- an error. Quitting. To debug this try DEBUGMODE(TRUE);
(%i2) determinant([[1,1],[2,2]]);

DETERMINANT called on a non-square matrix.
-- an error. Quitting. To debug this try DEBUGMODE(TRUE);
(%i3) determinant([1,1],[2,2]);

Maxima encountered a Lisp error:

Error in MACSYMA-TOP-LEVEL [or a callee]: MACSYMA-TOP-LEVEL [or a
callee] requires less than two arguments.

Automatically continuing.
To reenable the Lisp debugger set *debugger-hook* to nil.
(%i4) determinant(((1,1),(2,2)));

(%o4) DETERMINANT(2)
(%i5) determinant(((1,1),(2,6)));

(%o5) DETERMINANT(6)
(%i6) determinant([(1,1),(2,6)]);

DETERMINANT called on a non-square matrix.
-- an error. Quitting. To debug this try DEBUGMODE(TRUE);
(%i7)

So much for the manual. This is normally my experience with the manual.
Sketchy doc, no examples, and what I would think would work never does.

You seem to be familiar with either Maxima, or CAS systems in general,
such that you don't understand how the sketchiness is difficult for
somebody unfamiliar with the software. Maybe this example will help.

David Logan

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