Thread: [SOLVED] subtracting fractions

this should probably be fairly easy, but my answer ended up being slightly different than what the answer should be. I'm hoping someone can be so kind as to point out my mistake.



I started by factoring the denominators to



then I multiplied the stuff out to



I then factored out the (x-2) in the numerator to



then cancelled the (x-2) out, leaving



next I distributed the numerator to



then finally simplified to



unfortunately, the answer is apparently



close, but close doesn't count in math. Can someone please point out my mistake?

finish up

ok, so that distributes to



then simplifies to



which is what I got doing it the other way So how do I get from here to



Am I doing something wrong in distributing, or am I just missing some simple transform or something?

the given "answer" is not correct.

the final result should be



you sure you copied it correctly?

hah....sure enough, I didn't copy it right. The negative in the given answer is in front of the entire fraction. So, for all intents and purposes, my answer was correct.

thanks for the assistance.