What is 12x^6 / 7 divided by 4x^2 / 5 ?

When dividing fractions, the first step is to change the division symbol to a multiplication symbol and flip the fraction that we are dividing by which gives us 12x6 / 7 multiplied by 5 / 4x2. The next step is to cancel coefficients if possible by taking out common factors from the numerators and denominators. This isn't a necessary step but it makes the calculations easier later on in the question so is well worth doing! Here we can notice that 4 is a factor of both 4 and 12 so cancelling this gives us 3x6 / 7 multiplied by 5 / x2. Next we need to cancel the variables. Here we can use the index rule for dividing powers which is xdivided by xb = xa-b, so subtracting the indices of the powers of x will give us 3x4 / 7 multiplied by 5 / 1. Note that it's really tempting to divide the indices here but we need to remember not to do this! Finally we can write the calculation as a single fraction by multiplying the numerators together and multiplying the denominators together. This gives 3x4 multiplied by 5 as the numerator, which can be written as 15x4 as we just multiply the coefficients. The numerator will be 7 as anything multiplied by 1 doesn't change the number. Hence, we end up with an answer of 15x4 / 7. 

JR

Related Maths GCSE answers

All answers ▸

a=7 and b=2, Work out the value of (a/b)-a^b


The area of a rectangle is 8cm^2. The rectangle is (3x+1) by (2x+5). Find the value of x


Expand and simplify (3x-1)(2x+1)(5-x)


The equation of the line L1 is y=3x–2. The equation of the line L2 is 3y–9x+5=0. Show that these two lines are parallel.