# Complex equation in maxima

I rested on this tutorial.

After issuing the command with "solve" function:

%i2 solve((a-b-sqrt(-c^2+2*c*y-y^2+r^2))^2+(d-y)^2=2*r^2*(1-cos(e)),y);


The output is:

Why there is unknown quantity "y" on the right side?

P.S.

There's no "Maxima" tag, what a pity! However, I was redirected here by a stackoverflow moderator, so I assume it is not offtopic.

Maxima is a computer algebra system based on a 1982 version of Macsyma. It is written in Common Lisp and runs on all POSIX platforms such as Mac OS X, Unix, BSD, and GNU/Linux as well as under Microsoft Windows. It is free software released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxima_%28software%29

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Clearly, Maxima was not entirely successful at isolating the variable you want... – J. M. Jul 23 '12 at 0:42
@J.M. Was it my fault? – 0x6B6F77616C74 Jul 23 '12 at 0:47
W|A spits out a pretty lengthy result that doesn't seem to have $y=$ (something with $y$ in it)... – The Chaz 2.0 Jul 23 '12 at 0:50
@TheChaz there are two "y" under the square root. Or this "W|A" shortcut which I don't understand (google also doesn't know anything about "W|A maxima") is significant. – 0x6B6F77616C74 Jul 23 '12 at 1:05
I copied your code "solve(...,y)" into www.wolframalpha.com – The Chaz 2.0 Jul 23 '12 at 1:16