PowerExpand—Wolfram Documentation
PowerExpand[expr]
expands all powers of products and powers.
PowerExpand[expr,{x1,x2,…}]
expands only with respect to the variables xi.
Details and Options
Examples
open all close allBasic Examples (1)
Expand a square root, implicitly assuming positive real values:
Without PowerExpand, no expansion is done:
The expansion is only correct for positive real variables:
This gives a completely correct result:
This gives a result correct under the specified assumptions:
Scope (11)
Expand a power of a product; the result may not be correct everywhere:
The general formula for expanding a power of a product:
Expand nested powers; the results may not be correct everywhere:
General formulas for expanding a nested power:
Expand the logarithm of a power; the result may not be correct everywhere:
The general formulas for expanding logarithms of powers:
Expand the logarithm of a product; the result may not be correct everywhere:
The general formula for expanding the logarithm of a product:
Expand compositions of inverse trigonometric and trigonometric functions:
This gives the universally correct formula:
Compute an expansion valid under the specified assumptions:
Options (3)
Assumptions (3)
With the default setting Assumptions -> Automatic, the expansions are not always correct:
When the assumptions are specified, the result is correct under the given assumptions:
With Assumptions->True, PowerExpand gives a universally correct expansion formula:
Properties & Relations (5)
Possible Issues (1)
History
Introduced in 1991 (2.0) | Updated in 1996 (3.0) ▪ 2007 (6.0)
Text
Wolfram Research (1991), PowerExpand, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PowerExpand.html (updated 2007).
CMS
Wolfram Language. 1991. "PowerExpand." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2007. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PowerExpand.html.
APA
Wolfram Language. (1991). PowerExpand. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PowerExpand.html
BibTeX
@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_powerexpand, author="Wolfram Research", title="{PowerExpand}", year="2007", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PowerExpand.html}", note=[Accessed: 22-February-2026]}
BibLaTeX
@online{reference.wolfram_2025_powerexpand, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={PowerExpand}, year={2007}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PowerExpand.html}, note=[Accessed: 22-February-2026]}