How do you find the quotient of (a^2 + 11a + 30) div (a + 5)(a2+11a+30)รท(a+5)?

1 Answer
Jul 21, 2018

a+5a+5

Explanation:

The key realization is that we should see if we can factor the numerator before we go through the trouble of long division.

To factor the numerator, let's do a little thought experiment:

What two numbers sum up to 1111 and have a product of 3030?

After some trial and error, we arrive at 55 and 66. This means we can factor this as

(a+5)(a+6)(a+5)(a+6)

We now have the following:

((a+5)(a+6))/(a+6)(a+5)(a+6)a+6

This works out very nicely, as we can now cancel out common factors:

((a+5)cancel(a+6))/cancel(a+6)

We're left with

a+5

Hope this helps!