March 2011
Intermediate to advanced
829 pages
25h 44m
English
Content preview from Technical Mathematics, Sixth Edition
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
11.5. Simplifying Fractions
From factoring, we move on to our study of fractions and fractional equations. As usual we start with a reminder of some definitions.
A fraction has a numerator, a denominator, and a fraction line, or bar.
This fraction can also be written on a single line as a/b. A fraction is a way of indicating a quotient of two quantities. Thus the fraction a/b can be read as "a divided by b." Another way of indicating this same division is a ÷ b. The quotient of two quantities is also spoken of as the ratio of those quantities. Thus a/b is the ratio of a to b.
Recall that the bar or fraction line is a symbol of grouping. The quantities in the numerator must be treated as a whole, and the quantities in the denominator must be treated as a whole.
Example 29:In the fraction
the numerator x + 4 must be treated as a whole. The 4 in the numerator, for example, cannot be divided by the 2 in the denominator, without also dividing the x by 2. |
11.5.1. Division by Zero
Since division by zero is not permitted, it should be understood in our work with fractions that the denominator cannot be zero.
Example 30:What values of x are not permitted in the following fraction
|
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.