In your own words, what are rational expressions? Why must we always be mindful of the final value of the denominator in a rational expression? For example, consider the rational expression 3x/(x2 – 16). What values in the denominator must we be mindful of? Explain why.

Question

anonymous · Answer

you have to make sure that the denominator is not 0 because you are not allowed to divide by 0

anonymous · Answer

so in this case 
$$x^2-16=0$$ 
$$x^2=16$$
$$x=4$$ or 
$$x=-4$$ and so x CANNOT be either of those two values