SOLUTION: Could you please help me solve the following equation: 1/(x+1) + 1/(x-1) = 1 This is the work that I have done so far: (x-1)+(x+1)=(x-1)(x+1) x-1+x+1=x^2-1 2x=x^2-1 0=x^2-2

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Question 463919: Could you please help me solve the following equation:
1/(x+1) + 1/(x-1) = 1
This is the work that I have done so far:
(x-1)+(x+1)=(x-1)(x+1)
x-1+x+1=x^2-1
2x=x^2-1
0=x^2-2x-1
That's where I'm stuck, and I'm not even sure that the work I've done so far is correct. I would sincerely appreciate your assistance.
Found 2 solutions by sudhanshu_kmr, Alan3354:
Answer by sudhanshu_kmr(1152) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!

yes, it is correct, it can't factorize.
You can find the value of x using quadratic formula.

Answer by Alan3354(69443) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
1/(x+1) + 1/(x-1) = 1
This is the work that I have done so far:
(x-1)+(x+1)=(x-1)(x+1)
x-1+x+1=x^2-1
2x=x^2-1
0=x^2-2x-1
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That's all correct

Solved by pluggable solver: SOLVE quadratic equation (work shown, graph etc)

Quadratic equation (in our case ) has the following solutons:

For these solutions to exist, the discriminant should not be a negative number.

First, we need to compute the discriminant : .

Discriminant d=8 is greater than zero. That means that there are two solutions: .

Quadratic expression can be factored:

Again, the answer is: 2.41421356237309, -0.414213562373095. Here's your graph:

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Ignore the part that says it can be factored.