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 Elementary Math Fractions, Percentages, Word Problems, Equations, Inequations, Factorization, Expansion

 August 9th, 2007, 05:07 AM #1 Senior Member   Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 2,140 Thanks: 0 the hardest part in elementary school math is.. i've had a lot of hard time with fractions in arithmetic when i was young -- it was very hard! i'm serious! did this happen to any of you guys?
 August 9th, 2007, 01:37 PM #2 Global Moderator     Joined: Nov 2006 From: UTC -5 Posts: 16,046 Thanks: 938 Math Focus: Number theory, computational mathematics, combinatorics, FOM, symbolic logic, TCS, algorithms Nah, fractions were easy for me. The hardest part for me (harder than Algebra I and II!) was long division; I remember being in the last third of the class to pick it up.
August 9th, 2007, 04:43 PM   #3
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Quote:
 Nah, fractions were easy for me. The hardest part for me (harder than Algebra I and II!) was long division; I remember being in the last third of the class to pick it up.
Same here. I still can't remember how to do long polynomial division.

 August 9th, 2007, 06:21 PM #4 Senior Member   Joined: Nov 2006 From: I'm a figment of my own imagination :? Posts: 848 Thanks: 0 It's the same basic concept as long division in base 10 with the difference that you can have negative terms. For example: (4x^4-3x^3+x^2-2x-5)/(x^2-1) Code:  4x^2 ____________________ x^2-1| 4x^4-3x^3+ x^2-2x-5 -4x^4-0x^3+2x^2 _______________ 0x^4-3x^3+3x^2 4x^2-3x ____________________ x^2-1| 4x^4-3x^3+ x^2-2x-5 -4x^4-0x^3+2x^2 _______________ 0x^4-3x^3+3x^2-2x +3x^3+0x^2-3x _____________ 0x^3+3x^2-5x 4x^2-3x+3 ____________________ x^2-1| 4x^4-3x^3+ x^2-2x-5 -4x^4-0x^3+2x^2 _______________ 0x^4-3x^3+3x^2-2x +3x^3+0x^2-3x _____________ 0x^3+3x^2-5x-5 -3x^2+0x+3 __________ 0x^2-5x-2 The quotient, then, is 4x²-3x+3, and the remainder is -5x-2. Okay, that doesn't explain it very well , but did anyone follow any of it?
 August 10th, 2007, 02:56 AM #5 Senior Member   Joined: Dec 2006 Posts: 1,111 Thanks: 0 Code:  4x^2 ____________________ x^2-1| 4x^4-3x^3+ x^2-2x-5 -4x^4-0x^3+2x^2 ← ← ← ← ← ← _______________ 0x^4-3x^3+3x^2 Should that term by the arrows be a +4x^2? Or am I still suffering from polynomial division delusions?
 August 10th, 2007, 08:18 AM #6 Senior Member   Joined: Nov 2006 From: I'm a figment of my own imagination :? Posts: 848 Thanks: 0 Well, it looks like you followed it better than I did ! Yes that was a mistake on my part. That's part of the risk of doing math late at night . Corrected version: Code:  4x^2-3x+5 _____________________ x^2-1) 4x^4-3x^3+ x^2-2x-5 -4x^4-0x^3+4x^2 _______________ 0x^4-3x^3+5x^2-2x +3x^3+0x^2-3x _____________ 0x^3+5x^2-5x-5 -5x^2+0x+5 __________ 0x^2-5x+0 Quotient: 4x²-3x+5 Remainder: -5x This can be re-written as 4x^4-3x³+x²-2x-5=(4x²-3x+5)(x²-1)-5x Or you could divide that equation by the divisor, but that's uglier in my opinion.

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