Question

How do you long divide `(x^[4] - 16)/( x + 2)`?

Answer 1

You may first want to factorise `x^4-16` tomake the long division less tedious:
`x^4-16=(x^2+4)(x^2-4)=` now further factorise `x^2-4`
`(x^2+4)(x+2)(x-2)`

Dividing this by `x+2` and cancelling leaves:
`(x^2+4)(x-2)`