Find the Quotient

tristatefabricatorsinc

Junior Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2006
Messages
60
What is the quotient of...


x
------------------
1-x-x^2

I am unsure how to solve this....

Any help would be greatly appreciated...


Thanks
 
What sort of "dividing" have you been doing in class? Because this is, in most contexts, fully simplified.

Thank you.

Eliz.
 
It is actually for a programming / logic class? I do not know what my professor expects... He just said divide it and show our work? I do not know how to do it though... I am confused...


Thank You!
 
Oh, then check the denominator for zero and if not, simply divide away.

Of course, if you are dealing with values very close to zero, you will also need to worry about precision.

You may improve your life a little by avoiding exponentiation. Change the denominator to 1-x*(1+x) -- Please notice that it is NOT (1-x)*(1+x)!
 
tristatefabricatorsinc said:
I am sorry, when you say check the denominator for zero, what does that mean exactly?

It means to set the denominator equal to 0 and determine what values for x would make that true. Those values must be excluded from any solution values for x, since division by something equal to 0 is not defined.
 
In a computer program, you will want to evaluate the denominator first. If the value is zero (0), do not attempt the division. Can you say, "Overflow Error"?
 
tristatefabricatorsinc said:
What is the quotient of...
x
------------------
1-x-x^2
I am unsure how to solve this....
IF it's a programming exercise, WHY are you trying to solve it?

A bit like what TK is telling you, all you need is:
Get x
If (1 - x - x^2) <> 0 then d = x / (1 - x - x^2)

I'll bet your teacher is looking for that kind of logic.
 
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