Ebba Sen Pai
New member
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2018
- Messages
- 18
My question is about the basics of Algebraic long Division. I was wondering how to tell where to put the initial quotient term when solving the a problem. Below I provide two examples that I cannot make out the reasoning of. As far as I can tell they are relatively similar in that they both have binomial divisors with degrees of 2, and divedends with degrees of 4. The first is from a Youtube channel called "The Chemistry Tutor", and the second is from my E-Book by Blitzer.
What I cannot figure out is over which term inside the "house" (apologies, I don't recall correct term) my initial quotient term should go above. I generally understand the process well after that, but this initial step seems to vary and I cannot tell the reasoning behind it. Does my first terms in the quotient go above the 3rd term as demonstrated by "The Organic Chemistry Tutor", or does it go in the first above the first term as depicted by Blitzer?
(You don't need to read this part unless you want context). I am in Pre-Calc, and I only ever came across algebraic long division in my personal, self taught studies on Youtube when I did Algebra 1 (never in my school based textbook- we skipped that section). My Intermediate Algebra class had a "reviewing the basics section" where we touched on this very briefly but it never came back up in class after the 1st week. Suffice to say, I have no true backbone when it comes to this concept, and I truly appreciate anyone willing to share wisdom with me now on this subject I probably "should" know alot better, but simply haven't had any meaningful time with it.
As always, I thank you guys from the bottom of my heart.
(Red text and underline is me)
What I cannot figure out is over which term inside the "house" (apologies, I don't recall correct term) my initial quotient term should go above. I generally understand the process well after that, but this initial step seems to vary and I cannot tell the reasoning behind it. Does my first terms in the quotient go above the 3rd term as demonstrated by "The Organic Chemistry Tutor", or does it go in the first above the first term as depicted by Blitzer?
(You don't need to read this part unless you want context). I am in Pre-Calc, and I only ever came across algebraic long division in my personal, self taught studies on Youtube when I did Algebra 1 (never in my school based textbook- we skipped that section). My Intermediate Algebra class had a "reviewing the basics section" where we touched on this very briefly but it never came back up in class after the 1st week. Suffice to say, I have no true backbone when it comes to this concept, and I truly appreciate anyone willing to share wisdom with me now on this subject I probably "should" know alot better, but simply haven't had any meaningful time with it.
As always, I thank you guys from the bottom of my heart.