How do you solve this? x^2 – 4x – 5 over x^2 + 6x +5 divided by x^2 – 7x +10 over x^2 +3x - 10?

Question

Thanks in advance for the assistance....

Answer 1

To give a LITTLE more detail:

1. factor all the terms

2. flip the second fraction and change to multiplication

3. cancel like terms in numerator and denominator

4. multiply/combine the terms that remain.

If you can do each step, you can do the whole thing...

hope this gets you started.

Answer 2

Factor as much as you can before multiplying or dividing.

(x^2 – 4x – 5/ x^2 + 6x +5) / (x^2 – 7x +10/ x^2 +3x - 10)

(x–5)(x+1)/(x+5)(x+1)) / (x–2)(x-5)/ (x-2)(x+5)

(x–5)/(x+5) / (x-5)/(x+5) invert and multiply

everything reduces to 1