1959 AHSME Problems/Problem 16

Problem 16

The expression $\frac{x^2-3x+2}{x^2-5x+6}\div \frac{x^2-5x+4}{x^2-7x+12},$ when simplified is: $\textbf{(A)}\ \frac{(x-1)(x-6)}{(x-3)(x-4)} \qquad\textbf{(B)}\ \frac{x+3}{x-3}\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ \frac{x+1}{x-1}\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 1\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 2$

Solution

Factoring each of the binomials in the expression $\frac{x^2-3x+2}{x^2-5x+6}\div \frac{x^2-5x+4}{x^2-7x+12},$ will yield the result of $\frac{(x-2)(x-1)}{(x-3)(x-2)}\div \frac{(x-4)(x-1)}{(x-3)(x-4)},$ We can eliminate like terms to get $\frac {x-1}{x-3}\div \frac{x-1}{x-3}$ , which, according to identity property, is equivalent to the answer $\boxed{\textbf{(D) }1}$ .

1959 AHSC (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 15	Followed by Problem 17
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 • 31 • 32 • 33 • 34 • 35 • 36 • 37 • 38 • 39 • 40 • 41 • 42 • 43 • 44 • 45 • 46 • 47 • 48 • 49 • 50
All AHSME Problems and Solutions

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

Page

Toolbox

Search

1959 AHSME Problems/Problem 16

Problem 16

Solution

See also