
normal - normal form of a rational expression

Calling sequence:
normal(expr)

Parameter:

expr   --  expression

Overloading:

all

Summary:

normal returns the normal form of the rational expression expr.  This has
the form numerator /denominator, whereby the numerator and denominator
are expanded polynomial expressions whose greatest common divisor is 1.

If the expression expr contains non-rational sub-expressions, e.g. sin(x)
or x^(-1/3), then these are replaced by auxillary variables before being
normalised. These are then replaced later by the original expressions. Algebraic
dependencies of the sub-expressions are not taken into account.

>>  normal(x^2 - (x+1)*(x-1));

      1

>>  normal((x^2-1) / (x+1));

      x - 1

>>  normal(1/sin(x)^2 + y/sin(x));

      sin(x)^(-2) * (y*sin(x) + 1)

See also:  denom , gcd, numer

