How do I solve this:

4/x / 4/x+1

4 over x. Over. 4 over x +1


Also this one guys:

3(x-8/3)+8


I realize these are simple but its been forever since I had algebra.

The second one is x-8 over 3. I wasn't sure how to distribute this because I was thinking 3 x all to get 3x-24/9 but the book is telling me my answer ends up as x. Just x.

This post was edited by fingerling on Jan 26 2014 05:24pm

Dividing fractions, don't ask why.
Flip-flop the second and multiply

as said before, you have to learn to write the formulae tidy, i guess what you mean is:

(4/x) / (4/[x+1]) -> (4/x)*([x+1]/4) -> (x+1)/x

and 3([x-8]/3)+8 -> [x-8]+8 -> x

see how writing it in a proper fashion does make it easier?

This post was edited by brmv on Jan 26 2014 05:34pm

bah it still confusing.

It is 4 divided by x. Divided by. 4 divided by x. Plus one.

4/x X x/4 ( mult by the reciprocal like other guy said) should give me 4x / 4x + 1

So answer ends up x+1. Yes?

not if it is (4/x) / (4/[x+1]), then look at my line above

you cannot separate the x and the 1 from (x+1) before you have multiplied everything out

postscript

but if the formula is [(4/x) / (x/4)]+1 then the result is 2

always put the right parantheses/brackets around the parts of the formula so that you can slowly progress to work it out

This post was edited by brmv on Jan 26 2014 05:53pm

You do 4/x times (x+1)/4

So it'd be 4x + 4 / 4x making the answer (x+1) / x.

brmv explained it already but here's why (in a simpler way? No offense):

When you divide something by a fraction, you multiply it by the reciprocal (switch the numerator and denominator)

So 4/x is over 4/(x+1) which means you multiply 4/x by (x+1)/4.

Do the math, and you get (4x + 4) / (4x)

You can only cancel out any coefficients/constants if every term is similar. So you can cancel the
"4" out, because every term on top has a 4. However, you can't cancel the "x" because the
constant "4" by itself doesn't have an x.

As for the 2nd problem:

Every number is a fraction, theoretically; it's over 1. So you do 3/1 * (x-8)/3. You will get
(3x - 24)/3 + 8. Divide by 3 and you get (x-8) + 8. The "8"s cancel obviously and you get
the answer of just "x".

Ah OK thank you. Simple now that I remember