This week in precal 11  

This week in precalc, I learned how to solve rational equations  

Let’s say you are given  

 

X                         3                           5 

______ + _______ = __________ 

(x-2)                   x                           2 

 

 

The first step is to add the left side together 

 

 

We need to have a common denominator  

We can multiply the left by x, and the right by (x-2) with the top side and the bottom 

 

After multiplying, we have this 

 

X^2                 3x-6                        5 

______ + _______ = __________ 

          X(x-2)                                    2 

 

We can put the terms together 

 

X^2 + 3x-6                              5 

_____________ = __________ 

X(x-2)                                         2 

 

Now we can cross multiply 

5x(x-2) = 2(x^2+3x-6) 

5x^2-10x=2x^2+6x-12 

We can move the like terms 

3x^2-16x+12=0 

We can the put it in the quadratic formula 

And have an answer of