Hello everyone my name is Ryley and i well be your scribe for December 5th i well be scribing on...

Rational Equations

Right from the book.
"A rational equation is an equation with a variable in the denominator. The value of the variable that makes the denominator zero is a non-permissible value (NPV)."

As a example i well use this equation.
Step one is to find the NPV's. So the NPV's of this equation are x-5=0
x=5

Step two is to write the equation without denominators by multiplying each term by the LCM (lowest common multiple) of all terms.

The LCM for this equation is x-5

So now you multiple the LCM of the denominators to each of the terms.


which is also


Now what you can do is solve, to solve this equation you would factor.

(x-1)(x-4)
your two answers would be. x=4
x=1

Now to check you plug both of the answers into the equation.

x=1
1=1

and

x=4
4=4

This means that both of your answers are good.

I hope that this example and explanation helped you better understand how to solve Rational Equations.