Maple can deal with irrational roots in several ways. The best approach is to tell Maple to look for a factorization or a partial fraction decomposition which allows arbitrary real numbers, not just rationals. Maple will respond by returning a partial fraction decomposition or a factorization in which coefficients and roots are floating point approximations of their exact values. For all practical purposes floating point approximations of exact values are usually sufficient. Incidentally, if coefficients of a polynomial or a rational function contain a decimal expression, Maple will automatically factor or decompose using real numbers.
Engineers often prefer partial fraction decompositions using complex numbers.
Homework Problems Problem 1. Consider the polynomials , . Perform the long division using Maple. Have Maple display the final form of the quotient . Use the appropriate command to obtain a floating point decomposition.