1979 AHSME Problems/Problem 2

Revision as of 14:01, 6 July 2016 by Dot22 (talk | contribs) (Solution)

Solution

Moving all variables to one side of the equation, we can use Simon's Favorite Factoring Trick to factor the equation into \[(x+1)(y-1) = -1\] Plugging in $-1$ and $1$ as the $x$ and $y$ sides respectively, we get $x = -2$ and $y = 2$. Plugging this in to $\frac{1}{x}-\frac{1}{y}$ gives us $\boxed{-1}$ as our final answer.