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 [latex]\$280[/latex] per week and variable costs of [latex]\$9[/latex] per box of pastries. The shop’s costs per week in terms of [latex]x[/latex], the number of boxes made, is [latex]280+9x[/latex]. We can divide the costs per week by the number of boxes made to determine the cost per box of pastries.
[latex]\frac{280+9x}{x}[/latex]
Notice that the result is a polynomial expression divided by a second polynomial expression. In this section, we will explore quotients of polynomial expressions.