Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The difference of two squares can also be used as an arithmetical short cut. If two numbers (whose average is a number which is easily squared) are multiplied, the difference of two squares can be used to give you the product of the original two numbers. For example: = (+)
Division can be calculated with an abacus. [14] Logarithm tables can be used to divide two numbers, by subtracting the two numbers' logarithms, then looking up the antilogarithm of the result. Division can be calculated with a slide rule by aligning the divisor on the C scale with the dividend on the D scale. The quotient can be found on the D ...
Terms are within the same expression and are combined by either addition or subtraction. For example, take the expression: + There are two terms in this expression. Notice that the two terms have a common factor, that is, both terms have an . This means that the common factor variable can be factored out, resulting in
Sometimes multiplication and division are given equal precedence, or sometimes multiplication is given higher precedence than division; see § Mixed division and multiplication below. If each subtraction is replaced with addition of the opposite (additive inverse), then the associative and commutative laws of addition allow terms to be added in ...
If a > b, then replace a with a – b and divide the result by two until a becomes odd (as a and b are both odd, there is, at least, one division by 2). If a < b, then replace b with b – a and divide the result by two until b becomes odd. Now, a = b, and the greatest common divisor is .
Some examples include ,,, The constant of the product is called the coefficient. Terms that are either constants or have the same variables raised to the same powers are called like terms. If there are like terms in an expression, one can simplify the expression by combining the like terms.
For example, a fraction is put in lowest terms by cancelling out the common factors of the numerator and the denominator. [2] As another example, if a×b=a×c, then the multiplicative term a can be canceled out if a≠0, resulting in the equivalent expression b=c; this is equivalent to dividing through by a.
The result R = 0 occurs if and only if the polynomial A has B as a factor. Thus long division is a means for testing whether one polynomial has another as a factor, and, if it does, for factoring it out. For example, if a root r of A is known, it can be factored out by dividing A by (x – r).