How do I reduce this rational expression to lowest terms?
x^2 – 1 / 3- 3x
Top 3 Answers
Favorite Answer
** Hint: It might help if you switched (3-3x) to (-3x+3)… like this…
(x^2 – 1) / (3 – 3x) is the same as (x^2 -1) / (-3x + 3)
THAT IS EQUAL TO…
= [(x+1)(x-1)] / [(-3)(x+1)]…. the (x+1)’s cancel out… leaving you with…
= – (x-1) / 3
1
I think it’s simplified enough as it is, but if you want an expression like (Something)/(Other thing), the best you can do is multiply “up and down” to give a common denominator. The denominators of the first and third term (as you’ve got it written, I mean. To be absolutely anal, you should rearrange the terms in descending powers of x) is 1, while the middle term has a denominator of 3. Let common denominator be 3; use this to multiply the other two terms by 3/3.
0
I got a weird answer, it’s been a while since I did that kind of math. Try using the pythagorean theorem to find x, because you can’t just FOIL those numbers. Good luck!
0
