Let y = sqrt((x+1)(x+3)/(x+2).)Find all the real values of x for which y takes real values. ____________ _ / (x+1)(x+3) \ / —————————— \/ x+2 A square root (or any even root) must have only positive numbers or zero under it. So we must have (x+1)(x+3) —————————— > 0 x+2 The critical values are found by setting all the factors of the numerator and denominator = 0, and solving for x. So the critical values are -1, -3, and -2 Put these critical values on a number line: -------o-----o-----o------------------ -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 Pick a number less than the least critical value, say -4 and substitute it in (x+1)(x+3) —————————— x+2 (-4+1)(-4+3) (-3)(-1) 3 ———————————— = ————————— = - ——— -4+2 -2 2 This is negative, so we cannot shade left of -3 Next pick a number between -3 and -2, say -2.5 and substitute it in (x+1)(x+3) —————————— x+2 (-2.5+1)(-2.5+3) (-1.5)(.5) 3 ———————————————— = ————————— = ——— -2.5+2 -.5 2 This is positive, so we MUST shade between -3 and 2, so now the number line becomes -------o=====o-----o------------------ -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 Next pick a number between -2 and -1, say -1.5 and substitute it in (x+1)(x+3) —————————— x+2 (-1.5+1)(-1.5+3) (-.5)(1.5) 3 ———————————————— = ————————— = - ——— -1.5+2 .5 2 This is nagative, so we do not shade between -2 and -1, so the number line is still -------o=====o-----o------------------ -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 Next pick a number larger than -1, say 0 and substitute it in (x+1)(x+3) —————————— x+2 (0+1)(0+3) (1)(5) 5 —————————— = ————————— = ——— 0+2 2 2 This is positive, so we MUST shade to the right of -1, so the number line becomes -------o=====o-----o==================> -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 Finally we substitute the critical values themselves to see if they are solutions or not Substituting -3 (x+1)(x+3) —————————— x+2 (-3+1)(-3+3) (-2)(0) ———————————— = ———————— = 0 -3+2 -1 Zero in a numerator is OK (as long as the denominator is not zero so -3 is a solution and so we place "[" where the "o" is to indicate that -3 is part of the solution set. -------[=====o-----o==================> -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 Substituting critical value -2 (x+1)(x+3) —————————— x+2 (-2+1)(-2+3) (-1)(1) ———————————— = ———————— is not defined because of the 0 denominator -2+2 0 so we place ")" where the "o" is at -2 to indicate that it is not part of the solution set. -------[=====)-----o==================> -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 Substituting critical value -1 (x+1)(x+3) —————————— x+2 (-1+1)(-1+3) (0)(4) ———————————— = —————— = 0 -1+2 1 Zero in a numerator is OK (as long as the denominator is not zero so -1 is a solution and so we place "[" where the "o" is to indicate that -1 is part of the solution set. -------[=====)-----[==================> -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 We imagine that there is an ¥ symbol on the far right: -------[=====)-----[==================> ¥ -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 So we construct our interval notation solution from the number line by writing the critical values inside the parentheses and brackets, and when we skip a section between, we write "U". So the answer is [-3, -2) U [-1, ¥) We always put a "(" before -¥ and a ")" after ¥ Edwin AnlytcPhil@aol.com