How do you simplify #\frac { x ^ { 2} - x - 72} { x ^ { 2} + 13x + 40} \div \frac { x ^ { 2} + 5x + 6} { x ^ { 2} + 7x + 10}#?
2 Answers
Explanation:
We need to experiment with factorizing to see if there is anything we can cancel out.
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Invert and multiply the divisor:
Explanation:
Lets start by rewriting the problem such that all of the terms are combined into a single numerator and denominator. We can eliminate the division symbol by inverting the second term and switching to multiplication.
Now we can combine both terms into a single fraction.
We have four quadratic statements separated by parenthesis. By factoring each we may be able to find terms that cancel each other out.
Sure enough, we see that
After eliminating the like terms, we are left with the reduced solution to the problem.