I need to know if I need to further reduce my answer or if I leave it the way I have it. I have the original problem and then my answer.
-b +or- sqrt b^2=4ac/2a
answer x= -1/2 +or- 1/10
To determine if you need to further reduce your answer or leave it the way it is, we need to simplify the expression you provided for the values of x.
The expression you provided is:
x = -1/2 ± 1/10
To simplify this expression further, we can find a common denominator for the two terms on the right side of the equation, which is 10.
Multiplying the first term (-1/2) by 5/5, we get -5/10.
Now, the simplified expression becomes:
x = (-5/10) ± 1/10
To combine the terms on the right side, we can add or subtract their numerators while keeping the common denominator of 10:
-5 ± 1 = -4
Therefore, the simplified expression for x becomes:
x = -4/10
To further reduce the fraction, we can divide both the numerator and denominator by their greatest common divisor, which is 2:
-4 ÷ 2 / 10 ÷ 2 = -2/5
So, the fully simplified expression for x is:
x = -2/5
Now, comparing this simplified expression to the original answer you provided, which was x = -1/2 ± 1/10, we can see that they are not the same.
Therefore, it appears that you need to further reduce your answer to x = -2/5 instead of x = -1/2 ± 1/10.