Maxima Function
hipow (expr, x)
Returns the highest explicit exponent of x in expr.
x may be a variable or a general expression.
If x does not appear in expr,
hipow returns 0.
hipow does not consider expressions equivalent to expr.
In particular, hipow does not expand expr,
so hipow (expr, x) and hipow (expand (expr, x))
may yield different results.
Examples:
(%i1) hipow (y^3 * x^2 + x * y^4, x); (%o1) 2 (%i2) hipow ((x + y)^5, x); (%o2) 1 (%i3) hipow (expand ((x + y)^5), x); (%o3) 5 (%i4) hipow ((x + y)^5, x + y); (%o4) 5 (%i5) hipow (expand ((x + y)^5), x + y); (%o5) 0