9.6 Solving Rational Equations 5/13/2013

Vocabulary Rational Equation: Equation that shows two rational expressions or fractions are equal. Example: Cross Multiply:

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3 If x = 2, what happens to the denominator? Yes, it becomes 0 and you cannot divide by 0. So there is NO SOLUTION! Or if you just look at the problem you can easily see that for the 2 fractions to be equal x must be 2! 2 is called an Extraneous solution because it leads to a division by 0 in the original equation. Always check for extraneous solutions!

Example 4

Example 5 2(-2) =

Multiply each term by LCD Distributive Prop

Multiply each term by LCD Distributive Prop Factor using Big X

Homework: 9.6 p.503 #21-41 odd only MUST SHOW WORK!!!