Do you include the hole in the range of a rational function,?

breed96

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So, for example, if I have:

x(x-2)^2
----------
x(x+2)

And I wanted to know where f(x) >0,


Would I say (-2,0)U(0,2)U(2,infinity),

or just

(-2,2)U(2,infinity)?



The only reason I am even asking this is because I don't know whether to factor out the hole (x=0) first, or leave it there.
 
Last edited:
In the Domain? Absolutely not.
In the Range? That depends on the would-be value being reproduced elsewhere.

Note: It's a line with two holes. What happened to \(\displaystyle -\infty\)?
 
In the Domain? Absolutely not.
In the Range? That depends on the would-be value being reproduced elsewhere.

The hole is defined as (0,2). Would that count as being reproduced elsewhere? How would you express the problem in my description?
 
In the Domain? Absolutely not.
In the Range? That depends on the would-be value being reproduced elsewhere.

Note: It's a line with two holes. What happened to \(\displaystyle -\infty\)?


none of the values below negative 2 produce anything > 0, and I'm not seeing any other factors shared on top and bottom

maybe I worded my question wrong. The description is a better description of my confusion lol
 
In the Domain? Absolutely not.
In the Range? That depends on the would-be value being reproduced elsewhere.

Note: It's a line with two holes. What happened to \(\displaystyle -\infty\)?

There aren't any other factors shared on top and bottom, and the problem asked for the values to be greater than 0

I think I worded the question wrong. My actual confusion is in the description
 
In the Domain? Absolutely not.
In the Range? That depends on the would-be value being reproduced elsewhere.

Note: It's a line with two holes. What happened to \(\displaystyle -\infty\)?



I think my question was a little misleading. The description is a more accurate representation of my confusion. Also, there was only one shared factor on top and bottom (hole)
 
It's a line. There is only one chance for each value. A hole will be missing from both Domain and Range.
 
So, for example, if I have:

x(x-2)^2
----------
x(x+2)

And I wanted to know where f(x) >0,

Would I say (-2,0)U(0,2)U(2,infinity),

or just

(-2,2)U(2,infinity)?

The only reason I am even asking this is because I don't know whether to factor out the hole (x=0) first, or leave it there.

Let's start fresh. We need to be sure what the question really was.

Your title asks about the range; but the problem is not about a range. It is asking for the solution of
[x(x-2)^2]/[x(x+2)] > 0

Is that right?

It appears that you have simplified this by canceling the common factor, resulting in
(x-2)^2/(x+2)>0, x ≠ 0

Note that I included x ≠ 0 because canceling hides the fact that x can't be zero.

Then you solved this inequality to find that (ignoring the condition on x) the solution is
(-2,2) U (2,oo)

Combining everything, we end up with
(-2,0) U (0,2) U (2,oo)

Your answer is therefore correct. You can't include 0 because that makes the left side undefined.

Does this help? I think people misread a sign, so that they were making incorrect statements about the graph being a line, in addition to focusing on the question about range.
 
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