Return to the Purplemath home page

 The Purplemath Forums
Helping students gain understanding
and self-confidence in algebra


powered by FreeFind

 

Return to the Lessons Index  | Do the Lessons in Order  |  Get "Purplemath on CD" for offline use  |  Print-friendly page

Complex Fractions: Technicalities

I started with:

  • Simplify the following expression:

      • [ (1 / t) - 1 ] / [ (1 / t) + 1 ]

...and ended up with:   Copyright © Elizabeth Stapel 2003-2011 All Rights Reserved

      (1 - t) / (1 + t) for t not equal to zero or -1

The restriction at zero is easy to see, but what about the other restriction? Look at how the denominator fraction simplifies:

    1/t + 1 = (t + 1)/t

Then the complex fraction will be undefined if t + 1 = 0, or t = –1.

Return to the lesson

Top  |  Return to Index

  

 

Purplemath:
  Linking to this site
  Printing pages
  Donating
  School licensing

This lesson may be printed out for your personal use.

Content copyright protected by Copyscape website plagiarism search

  Copyright © 2003-2012  Elizabeth Stapel   |   About   |   Terms of Use

 

 Feedback   |   Error?