HP 48SX real/complex algebra

[Rick314]

Thank you Giuseppe. I read your reply, read the Owner's Manual regarding MATCH (that was new to me), tried your suggestions, and understand.

But it seems what you suggested requires knowing the desired answer and then telling the calculator to display it. I was hoping for some way to get the calculator to do the multiplication to 4 terms, simplify i*i = -1, collect the real and imaginary parts, and return the real part, all on its own. For example I also use Derive for symbolic algebra and it simplifies RE((a+b*i)*(c+d*i)) to a*c-b*d with a single click of "Simplify". I was hoping the HP 48SX could do likewise, perhaps with several clicks of some provided operations.

The closest I can come on the HP 48SX to what I want is to start with '(A+B*i)*(C+D*i)', EXPAN twice, COLCT twice, and see 'A*D*i+B*C*i+A*C-B*D'. Now (in this simple case) I can see the real and imaginary parts. But I would expect the calculator to be able to do the same, finish the job, and return 'A*C-B*D'. So far, it doesn't appear that the HP 48SX can do that.