How do you simplify #\frac { p ^ { 2} - 2p - 35} { p - 7}#?

1 Answer
May 5, 2017

#p+5#

Explanation:

Factor #p^2-2p-35#:

#((p-7)(p+5))/((p-7))#

Cancel #(p-7)# on both top and bottom:

#= p+5#

Note that you can't plug in #7# into this because plugging in #7# into the initial fraction would give an error because that
would be dividing by #0#

(It is assumed that #p !=7#)