Midterm blahs have set in a bit, and I’m having trouble focusing. I wonder if any of you might help me to understand, a little better this factoring, for my homework.
I want to factor the tops and bottoms of these fractions, so I can multiply them.
Well, you’re factored now! 
djm
You’ll need one of these to figure it out:
On the top one on the left side, the x becomes x^2 and the y is just plain y.
So it would be 3/4x^-2y •
then the second part becomes -8/9 xy^3
Ach…I hate math. I’m on the right track, but trying to type it out is giving me head aches.
If somebody else who knows how to write it better doesn’t come along, I will try again. I know how to do it, I just don’t know how to write it right and say it right.
Oooh, Oooh, I know what that is without looking at the URL. It’s a fraction collector!!! Used one many a time in the past.
Hi Cran
I agree with the second fraction, but is the first not 3y/4x^2.
David
Yes! It is! I can’t believe I got an answer that someone agrees with!
Walden,
Really, it’s a myth. You will never use this stuff in real life. 
Sorry to break the bad news. Now, go do something productive and play some tunes.
Scott
I done got my sister’s help. Thank y’all.
The beauty of math. Maybe we should start discussing math in the rubber room. It would eliminate so many flame wars.
Walden, the expressions that you were trying to multiply were monomials, mathematical expressions having a single term, hence each term was already in factored form, such as 3XY. Monomials terms can be multiplied easily by following the rules for multiplying terms with exponents. It is only when you have polynomials that you need to factor before you can perform certain operations.
Now, to deal with the larger and more important question about the need for learning algebra in the first place. As an ex-teacher of high school algebra, I heard this complaint frequently. It is hard for the beginning student of mathematics to understand how they might possibly use something that is so abstract, such as algebra, especially if they do not plan to go on to college and major in a field that requires more advanced mathematical abilities. In my classroom I tried to give analogies that would be easier for the students to understand. For example, even though most students that were required to take physical education in high school would never go on to become professional athletes, still that training was not wasted because the students benefited by having stronger and healthier bodies. It is easier to understand this relationship than it is to grasp how an introduction to abstract reasoning with mathematical symbols rather than the words of language would strengthen the student’s minds just as much as P.E. would strengthen their bodies.
I recently was sitting in a lawyer’s office, and we were in the process of trying to figure out the rather complex distribution of an estate. I wrote out the distribution formula with a simple algebraic expression. The lawyer went about it with words. We both arrived at the same solution, but I must say that my algebraic answer was cleaner and more straightforward than his round-about solution using many more words than numbers. In my own mind the lawyer was at a disadvantage because he was not comfortable using simple algebra.
Yep – I use algebra all the time. I recall once setting up a simple formula to convert monthly premium rates to biweekly rates, and a co-worker who was watching exclaimed, “Wow, you’re using algebra.”
Trig and geometry – less often but still have come in handy. You need trig to figure out how high your model rocket went.
Calculus, on the other hand, is the tool of the devil.
I can agree with Doug here, having advanced mathmatical skills (at least to an extent, to hell with fing calus, trig*****try, etc.) has helped me out tons. I’ve never used tons of math in the workplace outside your basic ±/, but for my hobbies (automotive, ham radio) I use math tons. There’s no way I’d be able to get the ammount of enjoyment that I do out of my hobbies if I didn’t have at least some advanced math skills.
You may not use them in your career (hell, very VERY few people actually do), but they will enrich your life in unexpected ways.
I was surprised to find myself looking up stuff about geometry when I worked in a book conservation lab. I had to make various things for book exhibits and I had to make boxes and various sorts of containers—there where just a lot of situations where I had to cut things to some shape and size that a little geometry helped with. Since I had not really learned my geometry (I got a good grade, but apparently that was possible to do without understanding anything) I was pretty proud that I even realized that I needed it, and I did solve a few simple problems on my own using it. I guess at least my class planted some seeds in my mind.
I’m glad your sister could help. More problems you do, better it gets. Definitely a matter of practice.
There is a woman in my town who had always had trouble with math, who felt she couldn’t do it yet figured if other people could she could too, at least to a certain level. Apparently she got so annoyed about this that she went back to school and got a master’s degree or something in math just to prove that she could do it now that she was older and understood more about why she’d had so much trouble before. She’s now in charge of the Math Lab at the college! I think she must be a good person to help others who are having trouble.
I took trig, EA, and calculus back when I was in school…
I can’t say that I’ve used much more than basic algebra in life since then…well, except for when I’m figuring out the new odds whenever they make a change to the lottery around here. heh 
Thats kind of surprisng to me, since I’m a computer programmer by trade. I deal in numbers all lthe time, but not much complex math. Usually, as a business applications programmer, if you have complex math to do, someone (an accountant, a geologist, etc) has done it for you already as part of a paper-based business process, and you just have to translate that into code–the time I made a program to visually represent on a map the seismic data purchased by a customer comes to mind. The the math to do the calculations, and to translate x-y into lat-long had long before been done by someone performing this job on paper. I just had to replicate it in code.
The devil gave up generic calculus long ago in favor of Differential Equations.
Those damned things have ruined many otherwise fruitful lives.
We must live in the same town. Or we at least must have used to. In the community college I used to go to, there was a lady who started college in her 30s and was in remedial math for 2 years. She eventually went on to get two masters degrees in mathematics. She’s an inspiration.
I’ve used algebra frequently, geometry semi-frequently and trig less frequently. Calc, not at all.
Math is silly.