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Solving Rational Equations with One Variable 4718 Views


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Description:

You don't want to leave a bunch of unsolved rational equations sitting around.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Solving Rational Equations with One Variable, a la Shmoop

00:09

The brother of a handsome, but rather dopey, gold-medal swimmer also has a reality show.

00:13

His name is Bryan and he is a mathematician.

00:21

Bryan is trying to figure out how many viewers he can expect for his show.

00:27

The network execs have given him a formula to figure out how many viewers Brian can expect.

00:35

Seven over two v, plus one over four, equals seventeen over four v.

00:43

Solving for v will tell us the number of viewers.

00:46

How many viewers will be tuning in to Brian's show?

00:50

Not counting yourself, of course.

00:51

Here are your options.

00:54

First, Brian has to find the lowest common multiple, or LCM, of the denominator.

00:59

This is only slightly more difficult than counting his brother's brain cells.

01:06

The lowest common multiple is 4v.

01:11

To get 4v in the denominator, we have to multiply 2v by 2.

01:15

And whatever you do to the bottom, you have to do to the top.

01:18

So we can multiplying seven over 2v by two over two to get fourteen over 4v.

01:26

To get 4v on the bottom of this fraction, multiply one over four

01:31

by v over v, which is one, giving us v over 4v.

01:36

Seventeen over four-v is fine. We don't need to change it.

01:40

Since every term in the equation is over 4v,

01:43

we can just multiply the equation by 4v to get rid of it.

01:47

Now we're left with fourteen plus v equals seventeen.

01:51

Subtract 14 from both sides to isolate v...

01:54

v equals seventeen minus fourteen, which is three.

01:58

So the answer is A. Three.

02:01

Sorry Bryan.

02:02

I guess only you and your cats watch your show.

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