Using Matching in Algebraic Equation Solving

Abstract

This paper describes the use of powerful algebraic matching techniques for applying rewrite rules In equation solving. A matcher Is presented that knows about the commutativlty and associativity of addition and multiplication, will provide defaults for missing summands and factors, and if necessary will solve algebraically for the value of pattern variables.able to derive the solutions to several of these hard problems. The PRESS solutions constitute a rational reconstruction of part of the history of algebra: we are not saying that this is how these solutions were first discovered, but that our program does show how they could have been discovered by a rational process of analysis of the problem, in terms of the tools available for its solution.