JaccquesC, Thanks - Superb!

Try the following: restart: with(StringTools); sentence:="This is a sentence with irregular spacing.": Squeeze( sentence ); David

Ganesh Take your equation A=B*x^2+C*x+D and transform it inro an equation which equals zero. eg B*x^2+C*x+D-A=0 Now solve this equation for the variable B. Using Maple the following would work: solve(B*x^2+C*x+D-A, B); David

I am not sure what you mean by 'fracture'. I am going to assume that you are referring to a 'fraction'. To convert broken bones into unconstipated ethers, I think needs a medical forum. In Maple try: x:=7/4; convert(x, float); Cheers, & apologies for my English!;-) David

Hi Earlier I posted a program Spiderflygrid2.mws which had something like the following error: Error, (in PiecewiseTools:-Convert) unable to compare .5064935065-.1688311688*yf and 2.764705882*yf I am using Maple7 and would like to know more about what this error means. More recently I have posted a similar program Spiderflygrid2_works.mws (with more expalanatory comments.) This has different graphics - the fly is denoted by a cross in twelve different positions which when folded, map on to the same point on the ceiling. cd[i], 1=1..12, represents the squares of these 12 distances. This program does NOT generate the above error. It appears the 'assume' statement determines whether an error message is generated. Eg change the inequalities for either yf to include the equality and the error message occurs. The expression for m is meant to give the minimum distance (squared). I suspect that the minimum occurs when there are two (or possibly more) equal distances to the fly. Any help on the meaning, or cause of the error message, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks David

Thanks for the reply. Sadly, I am using M ver 7 so it does not recognize/understand the Optimization module, nor the VectorCalculus. I am unsure whether this solution is appropriate ie does the constraint on the spider sz=0 confine the spider to the walls and ceiling - since it can only crawl. What is the distance function used? ie if it is the standard Euclidean distance then doesn't this imply the spider can fly? Or does sconstrain := {sx=2.5,sy=2.5,sz=0}; (sz=0), ensure the spider is always in the (x, y) plane? Also is maximize appropriate? David >restart; > spider := ; > fly := ; > dist := fly - spider; > #dist := VectorCalculus:-Norm(%); > #dist:=sqrt((fx-sx)^2+(fy-sy)^2+(fz-sz)^2); ???? > fconstrain := {0<=fx,fx<=5,0<=fy,fy<=5,0<=fz,fz<=5}; > sconstrain := {sx=2.5,sy=2.5,sz=0}; > #Optimization:-Maximize(dist,fconstrain union sconstrain); > maximize(dist,fconstrain union sconstrain);

Your question has come out as garbled HTML on my machine, so have difficulty understanding your question. I think it has something to do with Laplace transforms and the Dirac function. I suggest you look up Dirac in the search engine on this forum - there is a thread on this topic there. Hope this helps. David