Week 14- Equivalent Rational Expressions

This week we began chapter 7, the first lesson of chapter 7 was on equivalent rational expressions for example \frac{1}{2},\frac{2}{4},\frac{4}{8} are all equivalent rational expressions, also known as fractions. The definition of a rational number is “the quotient of two integers” whereas a rational expression can be defined as “the quotient of two polynomials”.

Since these are simply expressions as opposed to equations it means that all we can do is SIMPLIFY the expression (ie. reduce the fraction until it’s in its simplest form), if it were an equation we would be able to SOLVE the equation (ie. determine the value of the variable).

steps:

1. Determine the non-permissible values before simplifying. Non-permissible values are the same a son restrictions and will result in an answer that is “undefined”.

2. Reduce and Simplify, sometimes you may have to Factor the expression until it’s in simplest form.

3. Verify, You can test the equivalency of two fractions by replacing the variable with any value, if the reduced fractions are the same then the fractions are equivalent.

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