How do you simplify #(4x^-1)/(12x^2)#?

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Answer 1 · 2018-05-21T21:22:54

#1/3x^-3#

We have the following:

#(color(purple)(4)color(blue)(x^-1))/(color(purple)(12)color(blue)(x^2))#

We can handle these expressions separately. The purple terms just simplify to

#color(purple)(1/3)#

And we can rewrite the blue expressions as follows:

#color(blue)(x^(-1-2))#

We have the same base on the top and bottom, so we can subtract the exponents. Thus, we have

#color(blue)(x^-3)#

Putting it all together, we get

#1/3x^-3#

as our final answer.

Hope this helps!