ah but it's more complicated because only the main verb is at the end of the sentence, so if you need an auxiliary or you have a copular construction like "ist gleich", you need to split the verb phrase...
in fact, Germans would say (and do say, e.g. in mathematics) "wenn a gleich b" as a shorthand for "wenn a gleich b ist".
Interesting. Seems sorta like the English shorthand "if a less-than b, do this" (as opposed to "if a IS less than b, do this"). "Equal" is almost a different story since it works as a verb as well as an adjective.
in fact, Germans would say (and do say, e.g. in mathematics) "wenn a gleich b" as a shorthand for "wenn a gleich b ist".