Last week in Pre Cal, we learned how to simplify rational expressions, and this week we learned about solving rational equations. First of all, there’s a difference between rational expressions and rational equations. Rational expressions are when you just simply rational expressions in its lowest form, and it has NO equal sign or NO solving involved, just simplifying. Meanwhile, rational equations are when there’s an equal sign in a given question in which we would find the value of x (or any given variables) by simplifying it all down into its simplest term and then solving the equation to get an x-value.

Simplifying Rational Expression:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solving Rational Equation

Method 1

(cross-multiply method) This method is ideal for when we have one fraction for each side since it’s actually a little more complicated when we have more than one fraction on one side, and so we can use an alternative method where we find all the fractions’ common denominator.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Method 2

(finding its common denominator method) This is an alternative way to solve a rational equation in which we would find the common denominator, and then we can cancel out the denominators for each side since they are equivalent from each other, and this makes the equation easier to solve.