The Purplemath Forums

by **gem1110000** on Sat Apr 04, 2009 6:16 pm

X⁴-3X³-5X²-7X+9
------------------------
X⁵-X⁴-X³+3X²+5X+18

Help me this is so confusing to me! :confused:

**Sponsor**

by **stapel_eliz** on Sat Apr 04, 2009 6:36 pm

On what basis had you concluded that either of these polynomials was factorable...?

by **gem1110000** on Sat Apr 04, 2009 6:38 pm

Ha the back of the book says (1/X+2) so I wana know how they got there.

by **Martingale** on Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:15 pm

did you type the question in correctly?

by **gem1110000** on Sun Apr 05, 2009 1:50 am

oh dang its supposed to be +5x^2 in the top equation.

by **stapel_eliz** on Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:34 am

gem1110000 wrote:oh dang its supposed to be +5x^2 in the top equation.

Okay, well... now it appears that the numerator has no real factors, rational or otherwise. :shock:

by **gem1110000** on Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:55 pm

WOW I feel so dumb right now it was just long division................ :!:

by **stapel_eliz** on Sun Apr 05, 2009 3:46 pm

gem1110000 wrote:I feel so dumb right now it was just long division.

Um... how are you supposed to do that...? :confused:

Since the denominator (the divisor) has a larger degree than the numerator (the dividend), you can't actually do any polynomial long division, at least not as currently presented. :shock:

Was the exercise perhaps to divide $x^5\, -\, x^4\, -\, x^3\, +\, 4x^2\, -\, 5x\, +\, 18$ by $x^4\, -\, 3x^3\, +\, 5x^2\, -\, 7x\, +\, 9$ ...? Because then the answer would be $x\, +\, 2$ . :wink:

The Purplemath Forums

Simplifying Rational Functions: (x^4-3x^3-5x^2-7x+9)/(x^5-x^

Simplifying Rational Functions: (x^4-3x^3-5x^2-7x+9)/(x^5-x^

Re: Simplifying Rational Functions: (x^4-3x^3-5x^2-7x+9)/(x^5-x^

Re: Simplifying Rational Functions: (x^4-3x^3-5x^2-7x+9)/(x^5-x^

Re: Simplifying Rational Functions: (x^4-3x^3-5x^2-7x+9)/(x^5-x^

Re: Simplifying Rational Functions: (x^4-3x^3-5x^2-7x+9)/(x^5-x^