1955 AHSME Problems/Problem 13

Revision as of 12:23, 1 August 2020 by Angrybird029 (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Problem 13

The fraction $\frac{a^{-4}-b^{-4}}{a^{-2}-b^{-2}}$ is equal to:

$\textbf{(A)}\ a^{-6}-b^{-6}\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ a^{-2}-b^{-2}\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ a^{-2}+b^{-2}\\ \textbf{(D)}\ a^2+b^2\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ a^2-b^2$

Solution

By the difference of squares property, $a^{-4} - b^{-4}$ is equivalent to $(a^{-2} + b^{-2})(a^{-2} - b^{-2})$. This means the fraction is now equal to $\frac{(a^{-2} + b^{-2})(a^{-2} - b^{-2})}{a^{-2} - b^{-2}}$, which simplifies to $\textbf{(C)}\ a^{-2}+b^{-2}$

See Also

1955 AHSME (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 12
Followed by
Problem 14
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
All AHSME Problems and Solutions


The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions. AMC logo.png