High School

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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 :

To determine Morgan's error in subtracting the rational expressions, let's break down the subtraction step by step:

We have the expressions:
[tex]\[
\frac{3t^2 - 4t + 1}{t+3} - \frac{t^2 + 2t + 2}{t+3}
\][/tex]

Since the denominators are the same, we keep the denominator and subtract the numerators:
[tex]\[
(3t^2 - 4t + 1) - (t^2 + 2t + 2)
\][/tex]

Here’s how we should handle the subtraction of the numerators:

1. Distribute the negative sign to the second numerator:
- The expression becomes:
[tex]\[
3t^2 - 4t + 1 - t^2 - 2t - 2
\][/tex]

2. Combine like terms:
- For the [tex]\( t^2 \)[/tex] terms:
[tex]\[
3t^2 - t^2 = 2t^2
\][/tex]

- For the [tex]\( t \)[/tex] terms:
[tex]\[
-4t - 2t = -6t
\][/tex]

- For the constant terms:
[tex]\[
1 - 2 = -1
\][/tex]

Thus, the correctly subtracted expression for the numerator is:
[tex]\[
2t^2 - 6t - 1
\][/tex]

The resulting rational expression then becomes:
[tex]\[
\frac{2t^2 - 6t - 1}{t+3}
\][/tex]

Morgan's original answer was:
[tex]\[
\frac{2t^2 - 2t + 3}{t+3}
\][/tex]

Comparing the numerators reveals that Morgan's mistake was in failing to correctly distribute the negative sign to the terms in the second numerator, specifically to the [tex]\( 2t \)[/tex] and the constant [tex]\( 2 \)[/tex].

Thus, the error can be clearly identified as: Morgan forgot to distribute the negative sign to two of the terms in the second expression.

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