On 5/21/13 at 12:02 AM,
carlos.felippa%colora...@gtempaccount.com
wrote:
In[1]:= Abs[exp] /. Abs[a_] -> a
Out[1]= exp
But keep in mind this is a literal syntax replacement which may
not be mathematically valid. That is you can do something like
In[2]:= Sqrt[2] /. Sqrt[a_] -> a
Out[2]= 2
Turning Sqrt[2] into 2 which is clearly not mathematically valid.
Another approach would be
In[3]:= Assuming[exp > 0, Simplify@Abs[exp]]
Out[3]= exp
which is a mathematically valid operation given the assumption
exp>0 is true. And this last can be done as:
In[4]:= Abs[exp] // Assuming[exp > 0, Simplify@#] &
Out[4]= exp
which is often handy