Question

What is the simplified form of x minus 5 over x squared minus 3x minus 10 ⋅ x plus 2 over x squared plus x minus 12?

Answer 1

The correct answer is C: 1/(x + 4)(x - 5)

   Why? Well, let's first simplify x^2 - 3x - 10 and x^2 + x - 12; the two denominators. Each of these should become an (x +/- number), and to figure out the number, as well as whether it is positive or negative, we can do a simple trick

Look at the factors of the right number (In this case, -10 and -12)

-10                   -12

1  * -10            1 * -12

-1 * 10             -1 * 12

-2 * 5             -2 * 6

2 * -5              2 * -6

                      -3 * 4

                       4 * -3

Now for part 2

Which of these pairs add up to the middle number? One of the pairs of -10 should make -3, and likewise, one of the pairs of -12 should make 1 (when x has no number in front of it you may safely assume it is 1).

2 - 5 = -3 and 4 - 3 = 1, so we now know that the 2 fraction equations simplified is

x + 2 / (x + 2)(x - 5) * x - 3/(x -3)(x + 4)

Notice anything repeating? As long as they are apart of the same fraction, we can cross out anything that has the same x - number. Crossing out both x + 2 and x - 3, we now simply have x - 5 * x + 4. Because we crossed out both numerators, the top numbers both become 1, thus giving our answer, C.