1954 AHSME Problems/Problem 22

Problem 22

The expression $\frac{2x^2-x}{(x+1)(x-2)}-\frac{4+x}{(x+1)(x-2)}$ cannot be evaluated for $x=-1$ or $x=2$ , since division by zero is not allowed. For other values of $x$ :

$\textbf{(A)}\ \text{The expression takes on many different values.}\\ \textbf{(B)}\ \text{The expression has only the value 2.}\\ \textbf{(C)}\ \text{The expression has only the value 1.}\\ \textbf{(D)}\ \text{The expression always has a value between }-1\text{ and }+2.\\ \textbf{(E)}\ \text{The expression has a value greater than 2 or less than }-1.$

Solution

$\frac{2x^2-x}{(x+1)(x-2)}-\frac{4+x}{(x+1)(x-2)} = \frac{2x^2-2x-4}{(x+1)(x-2)}$

This can be factored as $\frac{(2)(x^2-x-2)}{(x+1)(x-2)} \implies \frac{(2)(x+1)(x-2)}{(x+1)(x-2)}$ , which cancels out to $2 \implies \boxed{\textbf{(B)} \text{The expression has only the value 2}}$ .

1954 AHSC (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 21	Followed by Problem 23
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1954 AHSME Problems/Problem 22

Problem 22

Solution