SOLUTION: My textbook for Algebra asks for us to "Solve the equation" but our teacher didn't go over this and I'm confused. The problem in question is {{{ 1/x^2 + 8/x +15=0}}} am I supposed

Question 845307: My textbook for Algebra asks for us to "Solve the equation" but our teacher didn't go over this and I'm confused. The problem in question is am I supposed to use the quadratic formula for this? Thanks for your trouble!
Answer by KMST(5328) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
You could go about it one of two ways:
1) You could multiply both sides of the equation times to get
<--> and solve that equation.
(That is probably the expected way).
2) You could say , and that makes ,
and substituting you would get
.
Solving that equation you get solutions for ,
which you can substitute into to find the values for .

MULTIPLYING TIMES :
We know that is not zero, because it is in a denominator and if it were zero, would not exist. If we found as a solution, we would discard it, because we know it is not a valid solution of
.
So we can safely multiply times both sides of the equal sign.will get

The quadratic formula says that the solutions to
are given by

is with
, , and .
So

The solutions are
and

NOTE:
You could use the quadratic formula, or you could solve by factoring, or you could even solve by completing the square.
For , using the quadratic formula is very reasonable,
because the other options do not seem any easier.
If you had changed variables (option 2) above) to end with
,
you may find that factoring is the easiest option.
You may immediately see that you can factor to get
,
which would tell you that the solutions are and .
means --> --> -->
means --> --> -->
RELATED QUESTIONS
Our teacher wanted us to graph this equation: y= -3/4x+3 And she wanted us to use a... (answered by stanbon,doukungfoo)

Hi, I'm really confused on how to solve complex higher-degree polymials, especially... (answered by ikleyn,ewatrrr,MathTherapy)

m over n......equals p over q. solve for p. i dont understand how to solve this... (answered by checkley71)

Please help with this question. This is my first homework for Geometry, I have had... (answered by Earlsdon)

My teacher has our advanced algebra class taking college algebra tests just for the heck... (answered by fractalier)

My teacher handed us a worksheet on algabraic proofs and told us to do it for homework. I (answered by rothauserc)

Our teacher never showed us how to work out a problem like this so I am confused. Can you (answered by ewatrrr)

Dear Reader, For The Past Week, My Math Teacher Assigns Us Algebra But I... (answered by Fombitz,Alan3354)

My question is to describe two methods for adding and subtracting linear expressions, but (answered by MathLover1,josgarithmetic)