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Morgan made a mistake when subtracting the rational expressions below.

[tex]\frac{3t^2 - 4t + 1}{t + 3} - \frac{t^2 + 2t + 2}{t + 3} = \frac{2t^2 - 2t + 3}{t + 3}[/tex]

What was Morgan's error?

A. Morgan forgot to combine only like terms.
B. Morgan forgot to subtract the denominators as well as the numerators.
C. Morgan forgot to cancel out the +3 in the numerator and denominator as her final step.
D. Morgan forgot to distribute the negative sign to two of the terms in the second expression.

Answer :

We start with the subtraction of the two rational expressions:

[tex]$$
\frac{3t^2-4t+1}{t+3} - \frac{t^2+2t+2}{t+3}.
$$[/tex]

Since the denominators are the same, we can combine the expressions by subtracting the numerators:

[tex]$$
\frac{(3t^2-4t+1) - (t^2+2t+2)}{t+3}.
$$[/tex]

The key step is to distribute the negative sign across every term in the second numerator. Properly distributing the negative sign gives:

[tex]$$
3t^2 - 4t + 1 - t^2 - 2t - 2.
$$[/tex]

Next, we combine like terms:

1. Combine the [tex]$t^2$[/tex] terms:
[tex]$$
3t^2 - t^2 = 2t^2.
$$[/tex]

2. Combine the [tex]$t$[/tex] terms:
[tex]$$
-4t - 2t = -6t.
$$[/tex]

3. Combine the constant terms:
[tex]$$
1 - 2 = -1.
$$[/tex]

Thus, the correct numerator is:

[tex]$$
2t^2 - 6t - 1.
$$[/tex]

So the correct expression is:

[tex]$$
\frac{2t^2 - 6t - 1}{t+3}.
$$[/tex]

In the mistake given, the final result was:

[tex]$$
\frac{2t^2 - 2t + 3}{t+3}.
$$[/tex]

This incorrect result happens because the negative sign was not fully applied to every term inside the second numerator. In other words, Morgan forgot to distribute the negative sign to two of the terms in the second expression.

Therefore, the error was that Morgan forgot to distribute the negative sign to two of the terms in the second expression.

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