JOHN D.

asked • 11/18/12

1/8-7/Y / 5/14Y-Y

hELP WITH SOLVING EQUATION

Inactive Tutor

When you're writing out an equation like that long form, you need to remember to use parenthesis to dictate what goes where otherwise you would solve it from left to right based on order of operations. What I think you meant to write was (1/8 - 7/y) / (5/14y-y) which looks like this:

1            7

---    -   ----

8           y

-----------

5

-------

14y-y

Is that correct?

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11/18/12

1 Expert Answer

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Inactive Tutor answered • 11/19/12

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I'm going to go off of what Kathryn assumed.

Just work with the top of the whole fraction first:

   1   -   7     need common denominator: 8y

   8       y

  (y) 1   -   (8) 7  simplify and subtract:  1y   -  56   =   y -  56

  (y) 8       (8) y                                  8y       8y            8y

When you divide a fraction by a fraction it is the same as multiplying the top fraction by the reciprocal of the bottom fraction

y  -  56   •   14y  -  y

    8y              5

Factor anything you can   then   cross cancel anything possible   then   multiply

y  -  56  •   y(14 - 1)     --->   y  -  56   •   (14 - 1)    =   (y - 56)(13)

   8y               5                        8               5                  (8)(5)

Distribute and simplify

13y  -  728

      40

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