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Inequalities - Cross Multiplying to Simplify?

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Inequalities - Cross Multiplying to Simplify?

by gxj007 » Thu May 28, 2009 8:54 am
Hi -

I was working through the last set of DS problems #145 in OG 11 and was attempting to cross multiply in order to simplify the equation for an inequality, however, according to the answer it doesn't seem like this works? Is it safe to say that for inequalities you can can not cross multiply to simplfy. I'm assuming this stems from not knowing if a variable is positive or negative.

Is 1/P > r/(r^2+2)


Any thoughts?

thanks!
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Thu May 28, 2009 9:17 am
You can't cross multiply with inequalities when using variables because if one of the variables is negative then the sign would change. Since you don't have the value of the variable, if you cross multiply you would not know whether or not leaving the sign as it is would still make the expression correct. Hope that helps.
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by gxj007 » Thu May 28, 2009 10:33 am
perfect. thanks!
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In your question

by rah_pandey » Thu May 28, 2009 11:25 pm
However in your question you can cross multiply r^2+2 as it is always positive
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