Question

-15p^2w^8/9pw(7p^5)

Answer 1

well that's ugly. let me see if i am understanding it correctly, \[-15p^2w^8\over9pw(7p^5)\]

yeah?

Answer 2

yeah

Answer 3

ok, the first thing we are going to do is get rid of the parenthesis on the bottom, cause parenthesis always suck. so if you multiply it out, you should get:

63p^6w

on the bottom

Answer 4

now we are going to use the properties of division to cancel some exponents. since we have p^2 on the top and p^6 on the bottom, we know we can cancel all of the p's on top and two of them from the bottom. so you should get:

-15w^8 / 63p^4w

Answer 5

now we are going to cancel the w's. since there is only one on the bottom, we can only cancel one from each side. so we do that and should get:

-15w^7 / 63p^4

Answer 6

we are almost done. we have done everything we can with the variables, we just need to look at the numbers now

Answer 7

yes! you are doing good!!

Answer 8

w^7/48p^4

Answer 9

almost, since 63 and 15 only have 3 as a factor, we need to divide each number by 3 to reduce them as much as we can

Answer 10

so 15/3 = 5
and 63/3= 21

Answer 11

we don't want to forget that our 15 was negative, so when we put it back in we get:

-5w^7 / 21p^4

Answer 12

is that it or... w7/16p^4?

Answer 13

that is it, you should be left with a -5 in the numerator

Answer 14

why don't we combine -5 and 21?

Answer 15

since the -5 is a part of the numerator and the 21 is a part of the denominator, the only way that we can combine them is through division.we can't simply subtract them for the same reason we can't simply subtract \[-5 \over 21\]

Answer 16

aahh, thanks a lot! you really helped me refresh my memory :]

Answer 17

no problem! that's what we're here for ^_^

Answer 18

just glad i could help