Introduction to Rational Expressions

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Simplify rational expressions.
  • Multiply rational expressions.
  • Divide rational expressions.
  • Add and subtract rational expressions.
  • Simplify complex rational expressions.

A pastry shop has fixed costs of $280 per week and variable costs of $9 per box of pastries. The shop’s costs per week in terms of x, the number of boxes made, is 280+9x. We can divide the costs per week by the number of boxes made to determine the cost per box of pastries.

280+9xx

Notice that the result is a polynomial expression divided by a second polynomial expression. In this section, we will explore quotients of polynomial expressions.