Stop maxima from asking positive, negative or zero

Question

Is there some way to tell maxima that an expression is always positive? Here is an example snippet that causes maxima to ask the question for the expression sin(a)*x:

 declare([a,x,y],real);
 ca: cos(a) = (x / (sqrt(x*x + y*y)));
 a1: solve(ca,a)[1];
 solve(a1,y);

Answer 1

You can use assume. From Maxima's own documentation:

    -- Function: assume (, ..., )
     Adds predicates , ...,  to the current context.
     If a predicate is inconsistent or redundant with the predicates in
     the current context, it is not added to the context.  The context
     accumulates predicates from each call to `assume'.

     `assume' returns a list whose elements are the predicates added to
     the context or the atoms `redundant' or `inconsistent' where
     applicable.

     The predicates , ...,  can only be expressions
     with the relational operators `=' and `>'.
     Predicates cannot be literal equality `=' or literal inequality
     `#' expressions, nor can they be predicate functions such as
     `integerp'.

     Compound predicates of the form ` and ... and '
     are recognized, but not ` or ... or '.  `not
     ' is recognized if  is a relational predicate.
     Expressions of the form `not ( and )' and `not
     ( or )' are not recognized.

     Maxima's deduction mechanism is not very strong; there are many
     obvious consequences which cannot be determined by `is'.  This is
     a known weakness.

     `assume' evaluates its arguments.

     See also `is', `facts', `forget', `context', and `declare'.

 Examples:

      (%i1) assume (xx > 0, yy < -1, zz >= 0);
      (%o1)              [xx > 0, yy < - 1, zz >= 0]
      (%i2) assume (aa < bb and bb < cc);
      (%o2)                  [bb > aa, cc > bb]
      (%i3) facts ();
      (%o3)     [xx > 0, - 1 > yy, zz >= 0, bb > aa, cc > bb]
      (%i4) is (xx > yy);
      (%o4)                         true
      (%i5) is (yy < -yy);
      (%o5)                         true
      (%i6) is (sinh (bb - aa) > 0);
      (%o6)                         true
      (%i7) forget (bb > aa);
      (%o7)                       [bb > aa]
      (%i8) prederror : false;
      (%o8)                         false
      (%i9) is (sinh (bb - aa) > 0);
      (%o9)                        unknown
      (%i10) is (bb^2 < cc^2);
      (%o10)                       unknown