Question

How do you simplify `\frac{1}{27} x^{3} - \frac{8}{125}`?

Answer 1

The expression cannot be simplified, but can be factored as the differnce of two cubes.

Explanation:

This expression cannot be simplified because there are no like terms.
It could be treated as an addition of fractions, which is not necessarily 'simpler'

I suspect that the question should be 'factorize' because this is in the form of the difference of cubes.

If that is the case, the factors of the sum or difference of cubes follow a particular pattern.

`x^3 - y^3 = (x-y)(x^2+xy+y^2)`

`\frac{1}{27} x^{3} - \frac{8}{125} = (1/3x-2/5)(1/9x^2+2/15x +4/25)`#