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 August 12th, 2018, 04:13 PM #1 Newbie   Joined: Aug 2018 From: Singapore Posts: 1 Thanks: 0 Reciprocal of x/y - 1 Which of the following equals the reciprocal of x/y - 1, where x/y - 1 does not equal zero? (A) 1/x - y (B) -y/x (C) y/(x - 1) (D) x/(xy - 1) (E) y/(xy - 1) My answer is x/y - 1 = (x - y)/y and its reciprocal is y/(x - y) but I am not able to get the right answer from the choices. Please help.
August 12th, 2018, 05:15 PM   #2
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Quote:
 Originally Posted by bison72 Which of the following equals the reciprocal of x/y - 1, where x/y - 1 does not equal zero? (A) 1/x - y (B) -y/x (C) y/(x - 1) (D) x/(xy - 1) (E) y/(xy - 1) My answer is x/y - 1 = (x - y)/y and its reciprocal is y/(x - y) but I am not able to get the right answer from the choices. Please help.
You are correct. I can't think of a way to "massage" the other answers into the correct answer.

-Dan

August 13th, 2018, 03:56 PM   #3
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 Originally Posted by topsquark You are correct. I can't think of a way to "massage" the other answers into the correct answer. -Dan
If you view this as the fraction $\displaystyle x/y$ multiplied by $\displaystyle -1$ then B could be correct. On the other hand, who would interpret it this way?

August 13th, 2018, 04:06 PM   #4
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Quote:
 Originally Posted by mrtwhs If you view this as the fraction $\displaystyle x/y$ multiplied by $\displaystyle -1$ then B could be correct. On the other hand, who would interpret it this way?
I tried it as if it were intended to be x/(y - 1) since this is a very common mistake. But that doesn't help, none of the answers work.

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