Dividing Polynomials

As promised....

One of the key elements of this is the ability to split off fractions effectively.


Think of a normal, but improper fraction, such as 4/3. This could be expressed as 3/3 + 2/3 (or any other combination but this is clean and tidy and useful for us now). 3/3 is of course 1. We are left with 1 + 1/3.

The same thing can be done algebraically, so as to solve basic division questions.

Take (x + 6)/x. As above, we can think of this as x/x + 6/x. x/x = 1, so the answer is 1 + 6/x.

We use this property, making part of the numerator match the denominator, in dividing polynomials.