What is/are the vertical asymptote(s) for y=(x^2+2x)/(x^2+5x-6)?

2 Answers
Dec 18, 2014

x=-6 and x=1

The vertical asymptotes are where the denominator is equal to zero, because you can't divide by that. Therefore you should use factorisation here for the denominator: x^2+5x-6 = (x+6)(x-1).
We set this equal to zero, and find x=-6 and x=1.

Dec 18, 2014

To find the vertical asymptote of any function all we need to do is find where this function is undefined.
If a function is undefined when its' denominatore equals 0 (dividing by 0) then we can find the vertical asymptote by taking the denominator and setting it equal to 0.

0=x^2 + 5x -6

Now we can factor this piece of the function.

0=(x+6)*(x-1)

We have 2 vertical asymptotes because we have 2 numbers that make the denominator=0

The denominator is 0 if x=-6 or if x=1 so your 2 vertical asymptotes are -6,1.