Math help!?

Question

I need help dividing a binomial by another binomial

heres an example

x^2+9 divided by -x-4

how would you do this? plz help!

Answer 1

You can do this by long division. I'll try to show you here, but the fonts don't make this an easy thing to look at (if you copy and paste this message in Notepad, the numbers will line up better and you'll be able to follow the work better).

Set up like this:

_________
-x - 4 ) x^2 + 9

-x goes in to x^2 -x times, so that goes on top. Then work it out like a normal division problem:


___-x_________
-x - 4 ) x^2 + 0x + 9
-(x^2 + 4x)
--------
-4x + 9

-x goes into -4x 4 times, so that goes next:

___-x_+_4_____
-x - 4 ) x^2 + 0x + 9
-(x^2 + 4x)
--------
-4x + 9
-(-4x - 16)
--------
25

And since that's as far as you go, your remainder is 25. So your final answer is -x + 4 + 25/(-x - 4).