How do you solve #3-((a-1)/(a+3)) = ((a^2-5)/(a+3))#?
1 Answer
Multiply both sides by
Explanation:
The denominator is the same for both fractions in the equation. We can use this to our advantage by multiplying both sides by the denominator to 'clear' it from our equation:
Now that we've 'cleared' the denominators from the equation, we simplify all the terms:
Now, we have a quadratic equation with the following coefficients:
I wrote the equation using
EDIT: Updating results
Finally, we'll plug the solutions for
When
Since we have a solution where there's division by zero, this solution is considered extraneous, making it invalid for this question.
When
This means that the positive root is valid, and gives us our final answer: