SOLUTION: I'm really having trouble solving this problem. Help! v over 3 + v over v+5=-4 over v+5. I hope I'm writing it out where it is understandable.

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Question 78916: I'm really having trouble solving this problem. Help! v over 3 + v over v+5=-4 over v+5. I hope I'm writing it out where it is understandable.
Answer by mathdoc314(58) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
There are two ways I might read your answer. Here is the easy one first

If that is what you meant, then I can easily cancel out the (v+5) on the bottom of this (v is unequal to 5)

multiply thru by (3+v)

add 4v to each side to isolate v, and combine the vs

divide by 5

This one is going to be tricker since the won't cancel out so cleanly

For this one I would multiply both sides by the the denominator of the left side. This is sort of the same as using the reciprocal, or cross-multiplying

Now multiply back by that denomiator quadratic and multiply through the v

Now you have yourself a cubic polynomial to deal with and I think the solution of this is not within the scope of this website, or you probably won't have to know it, although you could look it up on the Wikipedia or Wolfram Mathematics where Mathematica is, or Maple, or a reference book that you won at a math contest, or whatever. So I suppose you probably meant the first problem and not this one. Next time please be clearer about what you meant to divide by.