Question

For which product or quotient is this expression the simplest form? (image attached)! please help :((

Answer 1

Answer:

D

Step-by-step explanation:

For simplify the work we can start to factorise all the possibles expressions:

2x + 8.

8 is multiple of 2, so it can became

2(x+4)

x^2 - 16 this is a difference of two squares, so it can be rewritten as:

(x+4)(x-4)

x^2 + 8x + 16

we have to find two numbers whose sum is 8 and whose product is 16

the two number are 4 and 4

it becames:

(x+4)(x+4)

x+ 4 can‘t be simplified

if we look at the expression, we can find that x-4 appears at the numerator so

x^2 - 16 must be at numerator

but the second factor (x+4) doesn’t appear, so has been simplified. This situation can be possible only in the D option

in fact

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

it became

(x+4)(x-4)/2 * 1/(x+4)(x+4)

(x-4)/2(x+4)