## anonymous 5 years ago 1/x squared - 25 minus x+5/x squared - 4x-5?

Eep. Could you use the equation editor here to write that out? It's not exactly clear what fractions go where and such.

2. anonymous

$1/x ^{2}-25 - x +5/x ^{2}-4x -5$

Heh. Silly me. No fraction notation in the equation editor yet. This: $\frac{1}{x^2} - 25−x+\frac{5}{x^2}−4x−5$ ?

4. anonymous

well i dont know if it makes a difference but -25 is on the bottom of the left fraction next to x squared, then x + 5 all over x squared -4x - 5...... if that makes any sense

Absolutely! Here we go: $\frac{1}{x^2 - 25} - \frac{x + 5}{x^2 - 4x - 5}$ Look right? What do you want to find out about this?

At a glance, the first thing that stands out is that $$x^2 - 25$$ is $$(x + 5)(x - 5)$$, part of which is the same as the top of the right fraction. Also, if you factor the denominator of the right fraction, you get: $x^2 - 4x - 5 = (x - 5)(x + 1)$ So now you have a common factor for the denominators as well. You should be able to do some interesting stuff once you write it out that way: $\frac{1}{(x + 5)(x - 5)} - \frac{x + 5}{(x - 5)(x + 1)}$