Thursday, April 8, 2021

A is for algebra

 I have a weird thing...I love algebra ;) 


Here is a mini algebra lesson for you about factoring!

As long as the numerator and denominator are equal, something equals one. 

so 2/2 = 1

456/456 = 1

1 dozen/1dozen = 1

😜/😜 = 1


We can use this rule of one for reducing/simplifying fractions...

Let's take this fraction:

2m-4mn/1-2n

First of all, check for numbers that can be factored out. We can factor a 2 out of both of the terms in the numerator. This will leave us with:


Next, check to see if you can factor a single variable out. We can factor an "m" out of both terms in the numerator. This leaves us with:


Now we have 2m times 1-2n in the numerator and 1-2n in the denominator.
We know that (1-2n)/(1-2n) is 1 (yay!!) so that leaves us with 2m times 1, which is just 2m.

Make sense? Hope so!






3 comments:

  1. That's a neat way of looking at things :D I loved algebra at school too. I didn't like trig though.

    Thank you for joining in our ABC Blogging.

    ReplyDelete
  2. even for my tired brain that made sense. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Okay, I love math, and I feel like I was pretty good at algebra in high school. Now, not so much, but this totally made sense. My boys think I'm crazy because I do have my own adult math book that I do for fun just to keep myself fresh. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete