Can someone please help me with my pre-calc work? Im very frustrated!!!!?

Question

okay here's the first problem:

Factor:

(u+7)^2-25v ^4

How do you factor that??????????

Here's another one:

Simplify:

x+h over x+h+2 - x over x+2 ALL OVER h

this one just confused me

Answer 1

1.) (u+7)^2 - 25v^4
You can write 25v^4 as (5v^2)^2. Thus:
(u+7)^2 - (5v^2)^2

Then: a^2 - b^2 = (a - b) (a + b)
so: (u+7)^2 - (5v^2)^2 = ((u+7) - 5v^2) * ((u+7) + 5v^2) (solution!)

2.) ((x + h) / (x + h + 2) - (x / (x+2))) / h

Step 1: Take the 2 fractions in the denominator, and find a common denominator to make a single fraction.
(x + h) / (x + h + 2) - (x / (x+2))
(x + h) / (x + h + 2) * (x+2) / (x+2) - (x / (x+2) * (x + h + 2)/(x + h + 2)) =
((x+h) (x+2)) - (x * (x+h+2)) / ((x+h+2)(x+2))

Distribute the parenthesis:
((x^2 + 2x + hx + 2h) - (x^2 + xh + 2x)) / (x^2 + 2x + xh + 2h + 2x + 4)

Simplify:
2h / (x^2 + 4x + 2h + xh + 4)

Step 2: Now that you have a simple fraction over h, bring h to the numerator:
(2h / (x^2 + 4x + 2h + xh + 4)) / h =
2h * h / (x^2 + 4x + 2h + xh + 4)
2h^2 / (x^2 + 4x + 2h + xh + 4)
or:
2h^2/ ((x+h+2)(x+2)) (solution!)

Answer 2

for the simplifying 1, because it's 1 fraction over another, take the first fraction(numerator) and multiply by the reciprocal of the second fraction(denominator). i think thats what it means to simply