Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /128 of 520

Algebra Difficulty 2.3 Junior Find the answer

To be continuous at x=1x = - 1, the value of x3+1x21\frac {x^3 + 1}{x^2 - 1} is taken to be:

Pick one

Solution

Factoring the numerator using the sum of cubes identity and denominator using the difference of squares identity gives (x+1)(x2x+1)(x+1)(x1)\dfrac{(x+1)(x^{2}-x+1)}{(x+1)(x-1)}
Cancelling out a factor of x+1x+1 from the numerator and denominator gives (x2x+1)(x1)\dfrac{(x^{2}-x+1)}{(x-1)}
Plugging in x=1x= -1 gives 32\dfrac{3}{-2} or E\fbox{E}.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.