How do you simplify and divide #(y^5+32)(y+2)^-1#?

1 Answer
Oct 30, 2016

Let's start by simplifying, using the rule #a^-1 = 1/a#.

#=> (y^5 + 32)/(y + 2)#

This is now a division problem, that can be done by either synthetic or long division. I will do it using synthetic division.

#-2"_|1 0 0 0 0 32"#
#" -2 4 -8 16 -32"#
#"-----------------------------------------------------------"#
#" 1 -2 4 -8 16 0"#

So, the quotient is #y^4 - 2y^3 + 4y^2 - 8y + 16#.

This cannot be factored further, if you check using the rational root theorem and the remainder theorem.

Hopefully this helps!