this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024
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Math Memes
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Nope. It means to present it in the simplest way possible. e.g. 5/10=1/2.
No I'm not. I'm saying "expand and simplify" is a thing in all high school Maths textbooks, "factor and simplify" isn't a thing in any of them.
"Sometimes factoring is prudent" - if you're trying to solve an equation, yes, but solving and simplifying aren't the same thing. If I arrive at an answer of 5/10 then I have solved but not simplified. Sometimes it's not even possible to simplify, because the answer is already in the simplest form possible, such as an answer of 1/2. I teach students when to recognise when something can be simplified and when it can't. Your original contention was that the Term was already simplified, and it wasn't.
"And thanks for the downvotes." - I downvote anything that is incorrect, just like a student would lose marks for same.
So then you wouldn't use factoring to simplify the math I gave you?
I'd use it to solve it, as per my previous comment on the difference between solving and simplifying.
By your words: you solve an equation. What I gave you to simplify was an algebraic fraction. As a teacher you should have realized that.
Nope. You gave me something to solve, as I already said. If I have x²-x and want to solve it, I use x(x-1) to find the roots - that isn't simplifying, that's solving.