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by shanice » Thu Jun 21, 2012 8:02 pm
Simplify : x-1/2 - 2x-1/3


My workings are as follows:-

3x-3/6 - 4x-2/6 = 3x-3-4x+2/6= -x-1/6

So, my answer is -x-1/6. However, the book states -x+1/6 as the answer.

Can someone help please?

Thank you.
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by Anurag@Gurome » Thu Jun 21, 2012 9:27 pm
shanice wrote:Simplify : x-1/2 - 2x-1/3
If there is no brackets or parentheses, then this will simplify as follows...
  • # x - 1/2 - 2x - 1/3
    = -x - 1/2 - 1/3
    = -x - 3/6 - 2/6
    = -x - 5/6
But if the expression is (x - 1/2) - (2x - 1/3), then the simplification will be,
  • # (x - 1/2) - (2x - 1/3)
    = (x - 1/2 - 2x + 1/3)
    = -x - 3/6 + 2/6
    = -x - 1/6
shanice wrote:3x-3/6 - 4x-2/6 = 3x-3-4x+2/6= -x-1/6
You can't do that.
(x - 1/2) and (2x - 3/6) are different.
(x - 1/2) can be written as (x - 2/4) or (x - 3/6) or (x - 50/100) but you cannot simply change the coefficient of x. Coincidentally in this case the difference you got is same, but this is wrong.
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by shanice » Sat Jun 23, 2012 9:34 am
Understood, Sir.

Thank you.
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