Math Note- Rational Inequalities
Math Note- Rational Inequalities
October 18, 2010
Tom Parr
Homework for Oct 18- N/A
Studying Tips
Many students expressed concern about their studying habits during homeroom on Friday. The following is a list of tips to help you study efficiently and successfully write tests.
- Take away all distractions (eg. phone) while you study
- Take study breaks and do something you enjoy
- Take off your shoes to write a test to help you relax
- Eat a healthy breakfast on the day of the test
- Sleep more
- Listen to classical music when studying
- Eat healthy food all the time
- Try the practice problems in the test
- Review your notes before you do your homework
- Make notes from the textbook
- Highlight important parts in your notes
- Make a one page summary
- Study before the test
- If you don’t understand a problem try youtubing it
- Wake up an hour early on the day of the test and review
- Ask questions when you are unsure
- Review the Wiki
- Highlight important things in different colours
- Make sure you can read your notes
- Summarize key info onto a whiteboard and put it in a place where you will see it often
- Type out notes
Solving Rational Inequalities
When solving rational inequalities it can be a helpful tool to graph your function. This allows you to clearly see when the inequality is greater than or less than 0. Or, you can solve the inequality algebraically.
It is often necessary to find common denominators, expand, and simplify your expressions. Factoring is a good way to keep your inequality organized and will also let you find common factors in the numerator and denominator (these result in a hole in your function).
3 Important Points
Remember to follow these three rules when solving rational inequalities.
1. Set the inequality < or > 0
2. Never cross out your denominators
3. Factor whenever possible.
If you want some additional reading about how to solve rational inequalities you can visit http://www.purplemath.com/modules/ineqrtnl.html. It is a good aid but please note that it expresses its final answer differently then how we are doing it in class.