Question

What is the simplified form of the quantity y-squared minus y minus 12 over the quantity y-squared minus 2y minus 15?

Answer 1

y^2 - y -12/y^2 - 2y - 15

Answer 2

factor

Answer 3

\[\frac{ y^{2}-y-12 }{ y^{2}-2y-15 }\]

Answer 4

factorize the numerator and the denominator

Answer 5

\[\frac{ (y-4)*(y+3) }{ (y-5)*(y+3) }\]

Answer 6

the (y+3) cancel out leaving you with \[\frac{ y-4 }{ y-5 }\]

Answer 7

y cannot equal -3 or 5 though, or else the denominator is 0

Answer 8

So when you factorized:

y - 4 * y + 3 is equal to -12
y - 5 * y + 3 is equal to -15
which is shown in the original equation.
hmmmm... ok thank you!! :)

Answer 9

(y-4)*(y+3) does not EQUAL -12, it equals y^2 -y -12