surds - am I dumb

CatInTheCorner

Hi, quick question.

This surds question is 2 marks, but I'm pretty stuck? I ended up with 2x - 0.75x^3/2

Reply 1

CatInTheCorner

Original post by CatInTheCorner

Hi, quick question.

This surds question is 2 marks, but I'm pretty stuck? I ended up with 2x - 0.75x^3/2

Reply 2

CatInTheCorner

I've realised I was silly and put the indice of my denominator as positive, but even when fixing that I get 2x^3/2 + 0.75x^1/2

Reply 3

CatInTheCorner

is it to the power of 3/2 on the second x in the numerator?? is the question written slightly wrong???

Reply 4

mqb2766

Original post by CatInTheCorner

Not sure how youve come up with that, but just use
(a-b)/c = a/c - b/c
and use normal index arithmetic. Presuming the "b" is a typo so the numerator should be
2x^2 - x^(3/2)
so the 3/2 is an exponent

Reply 5

CatInTheCorner

Original post by mqb2766

Not sure how youve come up with that, but just use
(a-b)/c = a/c - b/c
and use normal index arithmetic. Presuming the "b" is a typo so the numerator should be
2x^2 - x^(3/2)
so the 3/2 is an exponent

the thing is I get the ( i think right ) answer of 2x^3/2 - x when I assume the 3/2 in the numerator is a power and not a constant. Essentially I wrote it as (2x^2 - x^3/2)*(x^-1/2)

Reply 6

mqb2766

Original post by CatInTheCorner

the thing is I get the ( i think right ) answer of 2x^3/2 - x when I assume the 3/2 in the numerator is a power and not a constant. Essentially I wrote it as (2x^2 - x^3/2)*(x^-1/2)