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by vladmire » Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:50 pm
Can anyone help me understand this problem.
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by California4jx » Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:56 pm
because we do not know whether denominator is positive or negative. However, we know for sure that numerator is positive (its a square root) - so answer could be +ve 1 or -ve 1 depends on the actual sign of x.

Therefore, the above explanation is explained as the answer. |x|/x
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by niraj_a » Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:57 pm
sure

here's a rule for you: sqrt (x^2) can always be written as |x^2|. there's nothing else this question is asking.

if you did not know this rule, you could tested numbers and seen which answer choice matched i.e. 1, -1, 0, 2, -2
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by vittalgmat » Wed Dec 17, 2008 11:29 pm
niraj_a wrote:sure

here's a rule for you: sqrt (x^2) can always be written as |x^2|. <----- typo here. it should be |x| there's nothing else this question is asking.

if you did not know this rule, you could tested numbers and seen which answer choice matched i.e. 1, -1, 0, 2, -2
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by hgupta0 » Fri Dec 26, 2008 4:28 pm
Wouldn't the above be |1| (if that option was given?)
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by Ian Stewart » Fri Dec 26, 2008 5:46 pm
hgupta0 wrote:Wouldn't the above be |1| (if that option was given?)
Well, that option is given - it's answer choice C, since |1| is the same thing as 1.

I imagine what you're getting at is that the expression has an absolute value of 1, which is true, but that means that it's either equal to -1 or to 1, and not to |1|.
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