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sympysimplification

Simplify (1/x)^a / x^2 in sympy

A long operation with sympy yielded the expression (1/x)^a / x^2, which one would normally write as x^(-2-a). What is the right sequence of sympy operations that I can apply to arrive to the simplified form?

I have tried the following, and none of them seems to simplify the expression at all.

import sympy as sym

expr = sym.sympify("(1/x)^a / x^2")

print(sym.simplify(expr))
print(sym.expand_power_exp(expr))
print(sym.expand_power_base(expr, force=True))
print(sym.powsimp(expr, force=True))
print(sym.collect(expr, "x"))
print(sym.ratsimp(expr))

# prints (1/x)**a/x**2 every time
Solution

  • That simplification can only occurs when x is positive.

    from sympy import *
x = symbols("x", positive=True)
expr = sympify("(1/x)^a / x^2", locals={"x": x})
powsimp(expr)