how do i simplify 10x^2y/-5x^4y
Do you notice the y in both numerator and denominator? That means you can cancel them out
You can also subtract exponents for the x terms and divide 10 by 5.
See what you get and let us know.
To simplify the expression (10x^2y) / (-5x^4y), you can follow these steps:
1. Cancel out the common factors between the numerator and denominator. In this case, both the numerator and denominator have a factor of "y". By canceling out "y", the expression becomes:
(10x^2) / (-5x^4)
2. Apply the division of terms with the same base by subtracting the exponents. Here, both "x" terms have the same base, so we can subtract the exponent of the denominator from the exponent of the numerator. This results in:
10x^(2 - 4) = 10x^(-2)
3. Simplify further if possible. In this case, x^(-2) means 1 / x^2. Hence, the expression simplifies to:
10 / x^2
Therefore, the simplified form of (10x^2y) / (-5x^4y) is 10 / x^2.