why is factoring important in finding a least common denominator?
Question by sw_joey: why is factoring important in finding a least common denominator?
1) why is factoring important in finding a least common denominator?
2) A common student error is to confuse an equation with an expresstion. How do you distinguish between them?
3) Whether you have an expression containing fractions or a fractional equation, the first step is to find the LCD. Contrast what you do with the LCD in each situation.
4) Compare and contrast the two methods of simplifying complex fractions.
Best answer:
Answer by lizzie
1) If you don’t put the denominators in factored form, then you will get repeated factors and the denominator you get will be a common denominator, but not the least common denominator.
2) The word equation starts the same as the word equal. If there is no equal sign then it is just an expression. Equation requires an equal sign.
3) With an expression you write each numerator over the LCD and that means if you change the denominator you will change the numerator. With an equation you could do that too, but generally you want to multiply each expression by the LCD to cancel out the denominator and then you solve an equation without fractions in it.
4) With one method you find the LCD of all of the fractions that make up the complex fraction and then multiply each term by that LCD to cancel all of the individual denominators. The rest of the work is simplifying what is left. The other way to simplify is to write everything over the LCD and then use the division rule of fractions to simplify. The methods are the same because they require the LCD. They are different in that in one method you cancel the individual denominators and in the other you keep them in until you do the simplifying.
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